Approach Centre on Appointment Day issue, High Court tells TRS

A vacation bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday refused to intervene on a petition on the issue of advancing the Appointment Day of Telangana state from June 2 to May 16.

The bench instead directed the advocate, affiliated to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and who filed the petition, to bring the matter to the notice of the Central government. Encouraged by the Supreme Court’s refusal to intervene with the bifurcation process, the TRS is now trying to advance the statehood day to May 16, so that there will be no constitutional breakdown. 

TRS party sources also say that the leadership is concerned with the efforts of the Telangana Congress leaders to garner support from MIM and CPI to form a government in Telangana in case of a hung Assembly.

“It will be foolish on our part to wait till the Opposition makes its first move,” the leader pointed out.

V Prakash, a legal adviser of the TRS pointed out that the newly elected governments of Telangana and Seemandhra will have to wait from May 16 to June 2, triggering a crisis. “Actually the June 2 issue came up after the Bill was passed in both the houses. It was later sent by the home minister, so there is nothing wrong in seeking its advancement.”
He further said that TRS is confident of securing absolute majority on its own and it doesn’t want the Seemandhra Secretariat staff and the officials to have a fortnight’s time to tamper with important files. “There will be more accidental fire cases in Secretariat like the one in the top secret file section recently,”  reminded Prakash.

Predicting a clean sweep by TRS, CPI state secretary K Narayana has said that the first ever government in the new state of Telangana will be of TRS. He said that Congress has lost that chance by failing to project a credible leader as its chief ministerial candidate. Narayana, who has contested from Khammam Lok Sabha seat also felt that there is no logic in waiting till June 2, when the results will be out by May 16. “It is unconstitutional to keep the legislators waiting,” he told reporters here.

Meanwhile, Governor ESL Narasimhan has speeded up the process of bifurcation. He directed the officials at a meeting on Monday to complete the process by May 15, a day before the results of the two-phased elections in the combined state will be out.