Hyderabad: TRS MLA V. Srinivas Goud on Friday disclosed that TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao had in 2009 threatened to commit suicide by jumping from the NIMS Hospital building if anyone tried to exert pressure on him to call off his indefinite fast demanding statehood for Telangana.
Speaking in the Legislative Assembly on Friday, Mr Goud said that he, along with four other employee leaders, tried in vain to convince Mr Rao to call off his strike after doctors said that he would die any moment if he continued with his fast.
Sharing the details of the 11-day indefinite fast of Mr Rao in December 2009, which forced the then UPA government to make an announcement on initiating the process of formation of Telangana state, Mr Goud said, “His fast had already entered the sixth day and his condition was critical, when we met him in the hospital. Doctors told us that he would die any moment if he continued his fast. We requested KCR to call off his fast and told him that the employees and public were behind him to take part in his struggle for Telagnana. But he refused to do so and threatened to jump out from the window of his room if anyone pressurised him...”
Mr Goud said that thanks to Mr Rao, today Telangana was in a position to present a Rs 1 lakh-crore Budget. “Governments in undivided AP imposed a ban on the word “Telangana” in this House. They used to refer to Telangana as a backward region,” he said.
