JOIN USCongress’ rout in the four Assembly elections, results for which were announced on Sunday, has given fresh hope for united Andhra Pradesh activists who now believe that the ruling party at the Centre may decide to go slow in passing the Telangana Bill in Parliament.
While still reeling from the drubbing, the ruling UPA may find it harder to count on BJP’s support or cooperation in clearing the Telangana Bill as the saffron party emerges as a clear winner from the mandate it has received.
Lagadapati Rajagopal, the Congress MP from Vijayawada and a pro-united AP activist, said the party should stop the process of Telangana creation in view of the defeats, adding that the results should be an eye-opener for the Congress.
“All Samaikyandhra activists would meet on Monday to chalk out the further course of action,’ Rajagopal said.
“This is a fitting lesson to Congress which is trying to bulldoze state bifurcation without the support of the common man. Also Corruption and weak-kneed leadership took its toll,” observed Telugu Desam Party Chief N Chandrababu Naidu speaking to media at his residence as results started to trickle in.
Alleging that Congress has a tacit understanding with YSR Congress, Naidu said the ruling prty wants Jagan to get all the votes and pledge it to the UPA.
The former chief minister forecast a rout of Congress in the 2014 polls and therefore has no moral right to divide the state without addressing the concerns of the Seemandhra region.
Other TDP leaders in Seemandhra asked Congress to freeze the T process. “Congress should wait until 2014, seek fresh mandate in support of state’s bifurcation. It has lost people’s confidence to go any further with the process,” TDP legislature party leader Gali Muddukrishnama Naidu said.
Loksatta Party founder Dr Jayaprakash Narayan echoed similar feelings saying: “These results are indication that the Congress has failed to stand up to the people’s hopes. It should recognize at least now that people have rejected it. Power projects worth 4, 80,000 crore never took off because of Congress and it even failed to provide education to poor children in the country.”
According to the TRS, the result is an indication of the growing dependency of national parties over regional outfits. It also maintained that the outcome of elections to the northern states is unlikely to have any impact on its Telangana agenda.
“One thing is also sure that individual leaders in the states where BJP have won have grown above their parties in stature,” TRS leader K Taraka Rama Rao said.