Hyderabad: Telangana Congress legislators on Tuesday held Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao responsible for the merger of the seven mandals of Khammam district to AP.

Congress MLC Shabbir Ali, MLAs Puvvada Ajay Kumar, G. Chinna Reddy, Ramireddy Venkata Reddy and Bhaskara Rao said it was Mr Rao as TRS president who submitted a memorandum in 2010 to the Justice Srikrishna Committee where he requested the bifurcation of AP based on what existed a day before its formation on November 1, 1956.

Congress legislators have released the letter submitted by Mr Rao to V.K. Duggal, member secretary of the committee. In his letter, the TRS chief has written, “The only remedy lies in the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and restoration of status quo ante that which existed before November 1, 1956. The sooner it is done the better”.

Mr Shabbir Ali said that the Centre only took Mr Rao’s representation into consideration and proposed the merger of seven mandals of Khammam into AP.

Denying the allegations that then Union minister Jairam Ramesh was responsible for TS losing seven mandals, he said Mr Rao has been misleading people on the issue since the beginning.

“If the Centre had implemented all recommendations made by Mr Rao, then TS would have lost Bhadrachalam mandal and the famous Sri Ram temple also,” he added.

The Congress leaders said that the Telangana Congress was ready to support the TRS government if it was interested in getting back the lost Khammam mandals in the interest of the Telangana.