The Telugu Desam Party has demanded Congress president Sonia Gandhi and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi to spell out their stand on the bifurcation of the State.

At a press conference here on Sunday, TDP leaders P. Keshav and K. Ram Mohan Rao said there was all-round confusion within the Congress on the issue and wanted to know why Ms. Gandhi was silent. Referring to Home Minister P. Sabitha Indra Reddy’s demand that TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu state his views, they said that the Congress Government never sought his advice on any important issue and accused the ruling party of adopting an “opportunistic” stand now. Why should the Congress be in Government if it wants to run it as per the wishes of Mr. Naidu, they questioned.

Hitting out at Ministers, the TDP leaders said that when the State was in a cauldron, they should try to restore normalcy instead of making provocative statements and trying to derive political mileage.

They alleged that the plan to bifurcate the State was based on the strategy of Ms. Gandhi to ‘suppress’ the TDP, weaken the States and adopt a divide and rule policy.

At another press conference, former Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav hit out at TRS leader K. Chandrasekhar Rao for criticising the TDP and sought to know why he had entered into an alliance with the party during the Assembly elections. He also demanded Congress leaders to declare that they were all united and would abide by the Congress high command’s decision.