Telangana continues to keep the Congress and the Governments led by it at the Centre and Andhra Pradesh on tenterhooks. A day after the Congress hinted at moving towards making Telangana a reality, the united Andhra Pradesh proponents from within its own quarters geared up on Saturday to attempt stalling the move.
Union Ministers MM Pallam Raju, KS Rao, Chiranjeevi and D Purandeshwari (all hailing from coastal Andhra) and MPs K Bapiraju and Anantarami Reddy met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a delegation to request him against going ahead with the Telangana move.
The development comes even as over a dozen Ministers in the Kiran Reddy Government in Andhra Pradesh have written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi saying they would resign if Telangana was formed. Two Congress MlAs have already sent in their resignation letters to the Assembly Speaker in support of a united Andhra Pradesh. Reddy is also against Telangana’s creation.
The MPs told the Prime Minister that there would be repercussions not only for Andhra Pradesh but also for the entire country if the State is divided. They told Manmohan Singh that the formation of Telangana will create problems in many States including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh where there are demands for separate States.
The Congress Working Committee is likely to meet next week to take a final decision on the issue. Sources said an announcement, in this regard, could be made before the Monsoon Session of Parliament begins. After their meeting with Singh, Rao said that any decision to split the State would create problems and that it was
neither in the interest of the people nor the various regions of Andhra Pradesh.
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United we stand,
divided we fall:
Andhra Ministers
In the meantime, a number of Andhra Pradesh Ministers from Seemandhra, who are still camping in the National Capital, met at the residence of Sambasiva Rao to chalk out their strategy to prevent the State’s division.
S Sailajanath, the leader of the group, told reporters that they requested Sambasiva Rao to convey their views for united Andhra Pradesh to the central leadership. “The Centre has not yet taken any decision. There is no need to panic over the media reports. We will resign if the State is divided,” said Sailajanath.
“We are ready for any sacrifice including resignations for a united State,” said another State Minister G Srinivasa Rao.
With those opposing the division in action, a pro-Telangana Congress MP Ponnam Prabhakar said the leaders from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema should not “create any hurdle” in the formation of Telangana.
Party sources said the core group in its meeting on Friday has taken a decision in principle to divide the State but was still working out finer details including the future of Hyderabad.
Earlier, AICC general secretary incharge of Andhra Pradesh Digivijay Singh and his predecessor Ghulam Nabi Azad had held separate discussions with Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, PCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana and Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha.