With speculation about the impending division of Andhra Pradesh State reaching a feverish pitch, all eyes were focused on the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The political circles in the State were in a tizzy as the Congress high command has again summoned the recalcitrant CM N Kiran Kumar Reddy and the State Congress chief Botsa Satyanarayana. Both of them have been asked to be available to the Central leadership for last minute consultations.
The much-awaited CWC meet will be followed by the meeting of the coordination committee of UPA headed by Congress. It is believed that after CWC finalises its stand on the vexatious issue, the party will try to enlist the support of the allies as it wants to bring a Bill for the formation of Telangana state in the Parliament Session starting from August 5.
Congress circles here were agog that a formal decision to create Telangana State will be taken at the Union Cabinet meeting before the session starts. in New Delhi on Monday.However, he expressed ignorance about the agenda of the CWC meeting.Meanwhile, the Congress leaders from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions were coming under increasing pressure from the pro-unity lobbies to resign. The houses of Congress MPs as well as some Central Ministers were besieged by the students across the two regions. Students opposing bifurcation of the State demanded that the MPs and Ministers should resign immediately.
The agitators targeted the residences of Congress MPs A Venkatram Reddy in Anantapur, Sai Pratap in Kadapa, l Rajagopal in Vijaywada and camp office of Union Minister K Sambasiva Rao in Eluru. The protesters had a scuffle with the police and security forces.Meanwhile, several Congress leaders from the two regions including State Ministers and MPs met the the Chief Minister to discuss the latest situation and finalise their strategy to counter Telangana state.
One section of the Ministers was advocating that they should resign immediately as resigning after the decision will not make any difference. But others were of the opinion that no immediate decision was likely as several issues including the status of Hyderabad were yet to be settled.The question of whether proposed State will be confined only to the ten districts of Telangana or two districts of Rayalaseema will also be merged with it to make it Rayala-Telangana State was still open. But the idea was facing vehement opposition from all directions.
The Telangana forces including Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and Telangana Joint Action Committee as well as the BJP have decided to oppose the idea. They were all demanding geographic Telangana region as a separate State with Hyderabad as its capital.Even the people and the parties of Rayalaseema were also opposing any move to divide their region and some of them were demanding that the region should be made a separate State.
There were speculations that some Congress politicos of Anantapur and Kurnool , with their business interest in Hyderabad were ready to support the idea.But the status of Hyderabad city itself was a bone of contention between the supporters and opponents of Telangana. Telangana protagonists want the city to be the capital of their own State but people of the other regions want to see it as a joint capital. Another idea thrown in the air is that Hyderabad can be a joint Capital of the two States for five years. During this period, the city will be a centrally administered through a lieutenant governor.
The fight over Hyderabad city was important because 55% of State Government’s revenues and 65% of the Central Government revenues of Andhra Pradesh were generated in greater Hyderabad area. Andhra-seema people were apprehensive that if Hyderabad city was given to Telangana, they will be starved for resources in future.
They contend that they also played an important role in development of Hyderabad city over the last six decades and that they should continue to get benefit from the city in future. Privately it is the big businessmen and investors of Andhra and Rayalaseema region who were more worried about the fate of their own interest.