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AP Assembly in turmoil, adjourned sine die Hyderabad, December 14 With 139 legislators in the 294-member Assembly submitting resignations, cutting across party lines, in protest against the proposed creation of Telangana state, it became impossible for the government to introduce a resolution on Telangana as advised by the Centre. The Chief Minister K Rosaiah expressed his inability to introduce the resolution in view of the sharp divisions in the House on regional lines. As soon as the House assembled for the day, the protagonists and opponents of Telangana raised slogans in support of their demand and stalled the
proceedings. The Speaker N Kirankumar Reddy initially adjourned the House for 30 minutes. However, there was no respite after the House re-assembled. This prompted the Chair to adjourn the House sine die. Later, the legislators belonging to Telangana, Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions held parallel meetings to chalk out their respective strategies. Meanwhile, 20 ministers from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, who had earlier threatened to resign to protest against bifurcation of the state, withdrew their plan following Chief Minister's personal appeal to them to abide by collective responsibility. The Telangana ministers held a separate meeting at a star hotel here and decided to organise meetings across the region, thanking the party President Sonia Gandhi for taking a favourable decision on Telangana. Meanwhile, the main opposition Telugu Desam Party appeared headed for a vertical split with legislators and MPs from Telangana demanding a separate party unit for the region. While the ruling Congress is also divided on regional lines over the Centre’s move to create Telangana state, the TDP found itself in a much deeper crisis with the Telangana MLAs threatening to float separate unit if the party President N Chandrababu Naidu failed to declare “unequivocal” support for the statehood cause. The party MLAs, MLCs and MPs held a meeting here and passed a resolution urging Naidu to open a separate unit for Telangana region. “We have full faith in Naidu’s leadership and are confident that he will not go back on the stand supporting formation of Telangana state. We know he is under pressure from the leaders of Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra. If he bows to their pressure and changes his stand, then we will go ahead with floating Telangana TDP wing,” senior party legislator E Dayakar Rao said. The TDP, which had earlier dared Congress to introduce a resolution on Telangana and assured its support, found itself in a tight spot after the union government’s sudden announcement on initiating the process for formation of the new state. The regional party was hit by a spate of resignations by leaders from coastal Andhra and Rayalassema regions and instant protests and hunger strikes in protest against bifurcation of the state. The demand for an organisational split was made by Telangana TDP leaders even as Naidu was addressing a separate press conference at party headquarters pushing the blame on Congress for taking “hasty and unilateral decision” on Telangana. Meanwhile, Naidu admitted that his party was “vertically divided” over the issue and efforts were on to sort out the differences through internal debate. Accusing the UPA government of “complicating the matters” by making the midnight announcement without consulting anyone, he said there was an “unprecedented reaction” from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions. In another development, the Congress MP from Vijayawada L Rajagopal, a strong votary of unified state, was taken into preventive custody by the police at Shamshabad international airport soon after he landed here. He had earlier announced that he would launch an indefinite fast to oppose the division of AP. He was taken to Pahadi Shariff police station released later. Tension prevailed at the airport as a large number of the MP’s supporters tried to resist the arrest. They were also taken into custody. The industrialist-politician, whose Lanco Group of companies has vital business interests in Hyderabad in infrastructure and real estate sector, has been contending that Telangana resolution was bound to be defeated in the Assembly as at least 225 members would vote against it. Later, the police escorted him to Chief Minister’s residence where the latter appealed to him to withdraw the proposed indefinite fast. Telangana fuels ‘split-Bihar’ demand Patna, December 14 Even after the creation of Jharkhand a decade ago, the demand for other smaller states within Bihar could not get momentum. But now after the Centre’s nod to create Telangana, those in favour of smaller states in Bihar have suddenly renewed their demand. The ‘Akhil Bhartiya Mithila Rajya Sangharsh Samiti’, spearheading the movement for Mithilanchal out of 10 districts comprising the north and eastern part of Bihar, has even planned to hold a demonstration outside the Parliament at New Delhi on December 17 for the purpose. President of this Samiti, Baidyanath Chaudhary said a memorandum on this issue was also submitted to the Union Home Minister in June this year much before the Telangana issue cropped up. According to him, a memorandum bearing the signatures of 27 lakh people, demanding inclusion of Maithili language in the Eighth Schedule, was submitted to the President in May 2000. The ‘Seemanchal Development Council’ headed by former Union Minister of state for Home, Mohd. Taslimuddin, claimed to have sent a fresh memorandum to the Centre on Saturday demanding a separate state of Seemanchal comprising 10 districts of eastern Bihar. Purnia has been projected as the capital of the proposed state named Seemanchal. Not to be left behind, the ‘Pragatisheel Bhojpuri Samaj’ fighting for a separate Bhojpur Pradesh comprising 14 districts of Bihar, 12 of UP and two of Madhya Pradesh with the proposed capital at Varanasi (UP) has also launched a signature drive in support of their demand. Meanwhile, CM Nitish Kumar demanded constitution of a State Reorganisation Commission by the Centre to look into demands for separate states. However, Nitish was not in favour of creating any state smaller to Bihar. He also parried questionspertaining to further division of Bihar by demanding merger of Jharkhand with Bihar.
Darjeeling bandh called off
Kolkata, December 14 The decision to withdraw the bandh was announced by GJM president Bimal Gurung at a public meeting at Darjeeling. He said they were calling off the bandh for facilitating the tripartite talks on their demand to be held in the hills on December 21. But if there was no meeting on the demand, they would relaunch their bandh in larger scale. He said, “If K Chandrasekhar Rao can get their 60-year-old demand of Telengana after keeping only 11-day fast, the Gorkha people could rightly get Gorkhaland which is their century-old demand”.
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