Telangana crisis rocks Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh (AP) is gripped by an unprecedented political crisis over the formation of a new Telangana state with 131 members of the legislative assembly from Andhra and Rayalaseema region tendering their resignations to the Speaker N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.

The situation has taken a turn for the worse as some ministers, also from the same regions, were toying with the idea of resigning from their posts. They are angry over the reported remarks of Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai that the process for the formation of Telangana, to be carved out from Andhra Pradesh, was on and that Hyderabad will be the capital of the new state.

With more and more MLAs resigning and staying out of the House, the assembly was adjourned for the day without any transacting any business. There was however hectic activities in the lobbies of the House as MLAs from Telangana and Andhra region holding separate meetings to chalk out their respective strategies.

A meeting of Andhra and Rayalaseema MLAs, cutting across party affiliations met in the committee hall of assembly. The meeting was chaired by former minister and MLA from Anantapur district J.C. Divakar Reddy and decided to form a coordination committee to continue the protest. The meeting decided that the MLAs will go on a hunger strike in their respective constituencies to protest against the move to bifurcate the state.

Forty TDP legislators who have resigned held a protest in front of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the Assembly premises. P. Keshav who led the protest said it was a strange situation that the Congress party had created this crisis and the legislators of the same party were now protesting.

Spontaneous protest

However, Shilajanah, another Congress MLA from the same region denied that the political leaders were involved in the ongoing agitation in Andhra and Rayalaseema region. "It is a spontaneous protest lead by students, employees and lawyers," he said.

Another meeting of MLAs from Telangana was chaired by former home minister K. Jana Reddy who said there was no question of the Congress party high command going back on its announcement regarding Telangana. The participants at the meeting criticised the attitude and utterances of their counterparts from other region.

Telangana leaders, legislators and ministers also met the state Congress president D.Srinivas to discuss the situation. Srinivas, while rejecting the criticism against the Congress high command said the decision on Telangana was taken after consulting all parties. He said the Telangana movement and demand did not came over night and the problem was there for the past 50 years.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Konijeti Rosaiah is facing a dilemma due to the revolt of his party's MLAs and the high command's decision to form Telangana. This has turned out to be the biggest trial for the 77-year-old leader from coastal Andhra who had taken over as the chief minister only three months ago after the death of his much stronger and influential predecessor Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.

Though the wily and experienced veteran Rosaiah was trying to find a way out from the mess created over night, his difficulties and challenges seems to be mounting by the minute with every now and then a legislator walking into the Speaker's office to hand over his resignation.

The strategy of the Andhra and Rayalaseema group seems to be to pressurise the chief minister and the central leadership to drop the idea of Telangana. Worried over the worsening situation, Rosaiah made an appeal for peace and calm.

Addressing a press conference in Hyderabad yesterday, the chief minister said he will abide by the decisions and directions of his party's high command on the issue of Telangana, but stated that so far he had not received any instruction on when to move a resolution in the state assembly.

"I spoke to P. Chidambaram many times yesterday [Thursday] and he told me we will ask you at an appropriate time to move the resolution", he said.

Urging the people, specially legislators and other political leaders, to maintain peace, he said there was no cause for panic or getting provoked as Telangana was not going to be formed overnight. He said the late chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy had announced the formation of a committee in February under his (Rosaiah's chairmanship) to look into all aspects of Telangana.

"Now this committee will have to be reconstituted as I have become the chief minister and committee will have a new chairman. It will start its work soon", he said.

KCR proves to be a force to reckon with

By his astounding feat of forcing the government of India to bow before him and accept his demand for carving out smaller state of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh, 55-year-old Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhara Rao (KCR) has forced both his friends and enemies to sit up and take notice.

It is not new for this man from Medak district in Telangana and a member of landed community Velma to surprise the observers by his dramatic actions.

Rao, who started his political career in late 1970s and joined the newly launched regional party Telugu Desam of film star N.T. Rama Rao in middle 80s, has seen many ups and down in his political career. Despite having the image of a master of political craft, a strategist, thinker and orator par excellence with a command on four languages, KCR ran in to trouble with N. Chandrababu Naidu the supreme of TDP and Chief Minister when he did not induct him in to his cabinet after 1999 polls. Finally in 2001 he quit his post of deputy Speaker and launched the movement for separate Telangana state.