2014 completely changed the geography and politics of Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad:

As the year 2014 is all set to bid adieu, the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana will remember it in a diametrically opposing ways as it had been a bitter and sweet year for them respectively.

The passing year will be marked in red letters for the singularly significant development of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh as more than six-decade-old dream of Telangana people to have their own state finally came to fructification on June 2.

It was an unbelievable moment of victory for Telangana after almost a decade of political struggle, agitation, strikes and sacrifices when the might of the people forced the ruling Congress party at the centre to bow its head and pass a bill in Parliament in February despite strong opposition from Seemandhra.

While Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the Telugu Desam reaped the benefits of their respective stands in favour and opposition to Telangana by winning elections in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh respectively, Congress, the party which decided to give Telangana state had to pay a heavy political price. The grand old party of Indian politics was completely decimated in Andhra Pradesh as people voted against it, and came distant second in Telangana behind TRS.

Though generally believed that the Congress will benefit from Telangana decision, gamble failed to pay off as TRS refused to tag it along. It was a personal setback for the Congress president Sonia Gandhi who had relied heavily on the support of Telangana people. Weakened all over the country, Congress was hoping to get a handsome number of Parliamentary seats from a grateful Telangana and compensate its losses elsewhere. But it was not too be and party was beaten black and blue in both the state and general elections. It was a backbreaking debacle from which the party was yet to recover either in Telangana or AP.

On the other hand both the states continue to face the aftershocks of the split as the bifurcation act left many loose ends yet to be tied up.

Even nearly seven months after the bifurcation, the process of division of the government officials and employees was not fully completed and both the governments had to do with truncated bureaucracy affecting their decision-making and functioning.

AP was hit hard as the state has to survive with out a capital of its own and has to function from the joint capital of Hyderabad as a tenant. Though Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, known for his enterprising and CEO style of functioning put up a brave front saying his government will built a world class capital city near Guntur, the project has run in to resistance from the local people on the issue of land pooling. Farmers were not willing to part with their fertile lands and New Delhi was yet to fulfil its promise of a special package and help to build the new capital.

In a bid to infuse some enthusiasm, Naidu has roped in the services of Singapore government to prepare a blue print for the new capital also sought assistance from Japan. But every now and then Naidu’s frustration over losing control of Hyderabad keeps surfacing.

On the other hand, Telangana supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao was trying to rapidly build up on a far more developed and prosperous state capital, endowed with the world class infrastructure. His first six months in power have been marked by announcement of ambitious and grandiose plans to develop Hyderabad in to a truly international city and a global destination for investments in various sectors, specially IT, the strong point of Hyderabad.

But the situation has also been marred by bitter differences and controversies between the two neighbouring states ranging from the sharing of power, river waters and other resources. Reducing of power supply by Andhra to Telangana has already resulted in a major crisis forcing the new born state to spend a fortune on buying electricity from outside.

Sharing of waters of Krishna and Godavari will remain a toothache for many years to come.

Telangana on the other hand has refused to accept two key provisions of the bifurcation act, one handing over the law and order of Hyderabad to the state governor and secondly a common examination and joint entrance system for higher education.

Though the Intermediate of junior college exams and common entrance test for admission to engineering, medical and agricultural colleges known as Eamcet was held in 2014, next year holding of the test appears to be more difficult. Though Andhra Pradesh has unilaterally announced a joint entrance test schedule for 2015 on the ground that the Act provides for such a process for next year, Telangana has refused to accept it. In a move to conduct its own separate Eamcet to admit its own students in its own colleges, Telangana has also set up its own State Council for Higher Education.

Thus the bitter war of words continue between the two Chandras — Chandrababu Naidu and K Chandrasekhar Rao both blaming each other for their respective difficulties.

Meanwhile an aggressive BJP was trying to emerge as a major challenge in both the states. Though the saffron part is an alliance partner in Telugu Desam-led government in AP, its state and national leaders have dropped sufficient hints that sooner or later the party will part its ways, contest all future elections on its own and emerge as a principal opposition party against the TDP.

Though presently YSR Congress Party of Jaganmohan Reddy is the main opposition in Andhra, it’s facing an uncertain future as a Damocles’ Sword was hanging over his head in the form of a litany of cases of corruption and financial irregularities. The party does not have a second leader to take over in case of Jagan going to jail.

In Telangana on the other hand, TRS was in the process of strengthening itself at the cost of other parties. Both the Congress and the TDP have lost many legislators to TRS’ operation “Akarsh” (attracting the opponents) and some of them have even become ministers.

TRS eyes were firmly on taking over the reigns of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation till now ruled by the MIM with the support of Congress. Now TRS was enjoying a friendly relations with Muslim party and wants to have an electoral alliance with it. The rival BJP on the other hand will go to polls with the TDP, leaving Congress alone.

2014 had also been a very significant year for MIM of Asaduddin Owaisi as it for the first time has made a forceful debut in the state politics of neighbouring Maharashtra. The party which was largely confined to the Muslim-dominated old city of Hyderabad surprised everybody by winning two assembly seats in Maharashtra. Emboldened by the success, MIM supremo Asaduddin Owaisi was now planning to enter the fray in many more states including Karnataka, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. The coming year was likely to be more interesting and eventful for the party which was evincing more interest from the Muslims across the country.