Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy's stand that instead of Statehood, Telangana region should be given a special package of Rs 1.11 lakh crore, has evoked strong reaction from within the Congress.
At least two senior Congress leaders from the region have come down heavily on the stand of the Chief Minister, questioning his sincerity.
According to the details of Chief Minister's presentation before the Congress Core Committee last week, Reddy made a strong pitch against bifurcation of the State and as an alternate suggested an economic package equivalent to State's annual budget for the development of the region.
Apart from laying an emphasis on the economic aspects, the Chief Minister reportedly made a promising projection of Congress's electoral performance if the State remains united.
Claiming that his Government's development and welfare programs were having a good impact every where, Kiran Kumar Reddy promised to the Congress President Sonia Gandhi that he will deliver at least 25 lok Sabha seats and 160 to 170 Assembly seats if State remains united.
His package for Telangana, included an engineering and medical college, a 500-bed hospital in every district, Rs85,000 crore for irrigation sector and Rs13,750 crore for power sector.
Senior Congress leader V Hanumantha Rao ridiculed the stand of the Chief Minister as meaningless. "He should have supported statehood for Telangana and demanded a special package for Rayalaseema", he said.
Rao said that nothing less than a separate State will be acceptable to the people of the region.
Former Minister from Telangana T Jeevan Reddy asked the Chief Minister to first explain how much money he had spent on his own Chittoor district so far. "He is so generously suggesting a massive package for Telangana. My question is how much money he has spent on Telangana since he became the Chief Minister. It is very unfortunate that he is playing with the sentiments of Telangana people in the name of this package", he said.
If he had brought national status to the Pranahita-Chevella project, it would have brought 16lakh acres of land in the region under irrigation, Jeevan Reddy said.
While the game of hide and seek continues in the Congress over Telangana, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has come down heavily on the Congress party saying it will never trust the party.
TRS President K Chandrashekhar Rao said that the only way Congress can convince people is through passing a bill in the Parliament for carving out Telangana State. "Only presenting a bill in the Parliament is not enough as it can hang fire like so many other bills and Congress can try to exploit it to mislead the people in the elections", he said.
Rao was speaking after welcoming one more TDP MlA S Venugopalachary in the TRS fold. In a rebuff to Congress, TRS ruled out the possibility of a merger with Congress or any other party and said that the party will continue its work even after the formation of Telangana State.