Even as the Seema-Andhra regions are witnessing unprecedented wave of protests, people and political parties in the Telangana region continued their celebrations throughout the night after the Union Cabinet on Thursday decided to create a new Telangana State with Hyderabad as its capital.
While ordinary people, specially youth and students were celebrating the occasion by distributing sweets, bursting crackers, taking out processions and garlanding each other, the political leaders were busy in confabulations over the process lying ahead before Telangana State becomes a reality.
The Centre also appeared to be in no mood to waste any time in starting the process of the State formation. A day after the Cabinet decision, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde held his first meeting with the Group of 10 Ministers which will go into the nitty-gritty of the State formation. Sources said the Centre wants the Assembly to take up the resolution on Telangana before the end of this month.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday retreated to his farmhouse and was busy in meeting with party colleagues. There was speculation that Chandrasekhar Rao will merge his party with the Congress as soon as Parliament passes the Telangana Bill. But for the moment, he has asked all his supporters to remain vigilant to ensure that Telangana becomes a reality.
In a clear indication of the division and the confusion in the ranks of the main Opposition Telugu Desam Party, Telangana group of the party distributed sweets and celebrated Cabinet’s decision in the party office. This came even as party president N Chandrababu Naidu was busy opposing the Cabinet decision.
Same was the story of the Congress party. One Telangana Minister P Sudarshan Reddy refuted the claims of the Chief Minister that division of the State will lead to war over waters in future. “Nothing of that sort is going to happen,” said Irrigation Minister Sudarshan Reddy.