HYDERABAD: Back-channel talks Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana held with ministers from the Telangana region appear to be working. Of the 15 ministers, 11 turned up at the venue of the 48-hour “deeksha” launched by T Congress leaders here on Wednesday morning. At the end of the day, though, only three, K Jana Reddy, J Geeta Reddy and Basavaraju Saraiah, remained.The hunger strike began on time despite rain. Besides the ministers, nine MPs, 22 MLAs and 10 MLCs kick-started the programme -- which in itself is a scale down of sorts considering that on July 4, 12 ministers, 10 MPs, 33 MLAs and 12 MLCs had resigned.As the day wore on, several ministers quietly slipped out of the venue leaving leaders, spearheading the Congress brigade in the T cause, K Keshava Rao and Gutta Sukhender Reddy, red-faced.With his patience wearing thin, Sukhender Reddy fumed: “Can’t you be on deeksha for just two days? Is this your commitment to the Telangana cause?”. The ministers defended themselves, claiming that they had visited the protest camp not to participate in the deeksha but only to show their solidarity.In all, there are 15 ministers, including Deputy Chief Minister D Rajanarasimha, from the region. Of the 12 ministers who resigned, Ramireddy Venkata Reddy could not take part in the deeksha because he had an emergency to attend to. There are 17 MPs from the region, (12 Lok Sabha and five Rajya Sabha) 53 MLAs and 18 MLCs.Among the ministers who marked their attendance at the hunger strike were Jana Reddy, Saraiah, Geeta Reddy, Sabita Indra Reddy, V Sunitha Laxma Reddy, DK Aruna, D Sridhar Babu, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, K Venkata Reddy, P Sudershan Reddy and P Shankar Rao. Barring Jana Reddy, Saraiah and Geeta Reddy, the rest left one after the other within a few hours but not before giving lengthy speeches.
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