Hyderabad: Senior TRS leader and caretaker minister T. Harish Rao alleged that formation of Telangana state was delayed for 18 years because of TD president and AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
Mr Harish Rao said BJP senior leaders like then Union home minister L.K. Advani and Yashwant Sinha had said that they could not divide the state because Mr Naidu had prohibited the use of the word Telangana in the then undivided AP Assembly.
Speaking to mediapersons on Monday, Mr Harish Rao alleged that the Congress was trying to create a 1956-like situation by aligning with the Telugu Desam, referring to the creation of undivided Andhra Pradesh by merging Hyderabad and Andhra states.
Mr Harish Rao said he was speaking not as a TRS leader but as someone who was part of the Telangana agitation.
