BJP to raise Telangana issue in Parliament

Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Prakash Javadekar and Pushpdan Gadhavi have bagged time to push for the creation of Telangana -- in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha respectively -- during the fortnight-long Parliament session beginning on Thursday.

Javadekar is a Member of Parliament from Maharashtra and Gadhavi from Gujarat.

Javadekar, whose resolution is listed for February 20, told reporters that he was only pursuing his party's line to fight for Telangana. It will also figure in the BJP's manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls, he affirmed.

When media persons pointed out that the  BJP had not made any efforts to create Telangana during the five-year tenure of the National Democratic Alliance, Javadekar quipped that the 1999 party manifesto had promised the creation of three states, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand, and the party had kept its promise.