Telangana splits Andhra

Naidu, Chiru do a volte-face

An emergency meeting of the Rosaiah Cabinet, held in Hyderabad amid protest “resignations” by party MPs and MLAs as also legislators belonging to Opposition Telugu Desam Party and Praja Rajyam Party from the coastal Andhra and Rayalseema regions, accepted Home Minister P Chidamaram’s announcement late on Wednesday night on initiating a resolution in the Assembly.

Briefing newspersons after an emergency meeting of the Cabinet late on Thursday night, Information Minister J Geeta Reddy said they would abide by the decision of the Congress high command on the Telangana resolution. The chief minister would consult all political parties before moving the proposed resolution.

Significantly, however, no date has been fixed for tabling the resolution in the Assembly. The chief minister, according to party sources, had asked his ministers to prevail upon the MLAs to withdraw their resignations, sources said.

Opposition divides

Ahead of the Cabinet meeting, political drama was played out in both Hyderabad and Delhi with MLAs and MPs of many hues “resigning” in protest against the Central government’s decision on forming a separate Telangana.  TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu, who had extended support for the creation of new state, staged a second U-turn in just 14 months to assert that his party would oppose the state’s bifurcation.
But the Congress leadership moved in swiftly to nip their protest in the bud. In an evening meeting, party president Sonia Gandhi met the party MPs from the state. She sternly told them not to resort to resignations. “The Congress party has taken the decision on Telangana in the interest of the nation and this has to be respected by the MLAs and MPs of the party. We will, however, consult you all from time to time,” one MP, who attended the meeting, quoted Sonia as saying.

The state plunged into political chaos with at least 92 legislators and several MPs from Rayalseema and coastal Andhra regions of the state resigning or threatening to quit in protest against the “unilateral” decision to divide the state. As many as 39 legislators of the ruling Congress, 38 of the main Opposition TDP and 15 of the PRP are said to have sent their resignations, some to the Assembly Speaker who himself wanted to quit.
However, it is likely that all these MLAs and MPs will take back their resignations. Most of them have submitted their quit letters to their party presidents and not the respective presiding officers.

These resignations have been done in the heat of the moment. Things will cool down in a day or two,” a senior MP said.

The status of Hyderabad has become a contentious issue. A demand by certain Congress ministers to make it a Union Territory continued to be hotly debated in Delhi.
State Congress chief D Srinivas, who hails from Telangana, opined there can be no Telangana state without Hyderabad. “Hyderabad had been part of Telangana for 400 years and it will be the capital of a new Telangana state,” he said.