2nd phase of T-Bill debate today

Draft to be sent back to Prez by Jan 23

A five-day extended winter session of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly beginning on Friday may perhaps be united Andhra Pradesh’s penultimate session with the reorganisation bill to be sent back to President Pranab Mukherjee with its recommendation after debate by January 23.

With hardly two days spent on debating the crucial bill, the Samaikyandhra champion in the house, Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, is all set to make his marathon speech. “I will oppose the bill after giving reasons,” the chief minister said, amid reports that he could resign and launch a new political party in the ten districts of Seemandhra.

The chief minister’s presentation apart, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu has also prepared for a marathon speech in support of his theory that the draft bill is incomplete and needs to be redone and taken up again in Assembly for debate and voting.

Seemandhra has a strength of 175 MLAs of the Congress, TDP, YSR Congress Party and the Communist Party of India-Marxist from 13 districts opposing the bill. The Telangana lobby, led by Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha and the TRS, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), MIM and CPI, has a strength of 119 MLAs from 10 districts supporting the Telangana bill. 

Confident of numbers, Seemandhra members want a voting and division to decide the fate of the Telangana bill. But it is largely known that the bill has been brought to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly for just a debate and not for a division of vote.

In this scenario political parties in Andhra Pradesh are gearing up for a last battle over the state’s bifurcation. 

The atmosphere has vitiated so much that the deputy chief minister and the chief minister, though in the same party, are not on speaking terms. Similarly, MPs and MLAs across political parties are divided over regional bias.

Buoyed by the notion that Telangana formation is just around the corner, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and BJP are in very high spirits. 

Whereas, the YSRC and TDP and the chief minister’s group in Congress are not passing up the opportunity to showcase the dangers of Andhra Pradesh’s bifurcation.

“Both states will face water and power wars,” said Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, while TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu said, “The division is imbalanced and dangerous to both states.”

Even the TRS is opposed to the bill, which does not allocate the whole of Hyderabad for Telangana.

Legislators suggested nearly 10,000 amendments to the Telangana Bill on all 108 clauses in 13 chapters, making it difficult for the speaker and assembly officials to resolve.

Indications are that the debate will be wound up in a hurry after Kiran Kumar Reddy and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu complete their speeches. So far, no effort has been made to extend the deadline for debate in the House.