M A I N   N E W S

Polls on mind, Cong takes planned plunge
KV Prasad/TNS

New Delhi, July 30
It’s a cold and calculated political plunge the Congress has taken in carving out a separate Telangana state from Andhra Pradesh. The move has come at a time when the Congress is literally fighting with its back to the wall in the state that has in the last two Lok Sabha elections majorly helped it to secure power at the Centre.

Andhra Pradesh returned 33 members to Parliament in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections for the Congress, a figure that now appeared distant as the next General Election approach, primarily for two reasons --- a strong support for the nascent YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), formed by the son of former Chief Minister and Congress strongman YS Rajasekhara Reddy, and the challenge expected from the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and Opposition Telugu Desam Party.

With 17 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats and 117 Assembly seats from the Telangana region at stake, the Congress hopes to cut its losses and anticipates reversal in the other two regions ---Seemaandhra (coastal Andhra) and Rayalseema --- where the YSRCP and the TDP are expected to bag majority of the seats.

By delivering on its December 2009 promise, the Congress seeks to disallow political advantage to the TRS which has been raking up the emotive issue. Equally important consideration for the Congress was to deny the BJP an opportunity to steal its thunder. Though the BJP turned down the demand for a separate Telangana when Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government was at the Centre, subsequently it has been vociferous in supporting the demand. They had even promised to form a separate state after coming to power at the Centre.

The leaders from Seemaandhra are vehemently opposing the new state. Their concerns include safety of property owned by ‘settlers’ — as people of coastal and Rayalseema are known in Telengana region — and the share of river water that flows towards the coastal region which is the rice-bowl of the state. The Congress Working Committee in its resolution made it a point to ask the government to take these issues on board when the administrative process is set into motion.

As for the fate of the Bill carving out a separate state is concerned, the Congress view is that the resolution of the existing Andhra Pradesh Assembly is not binding.

Countering TRS, BJP

• By delivering on its December 2009 promise, the Congress seeks to disallow political advantage to the TRS which has been raking up the emotive issue
• Equally important consideration for the Congress was to deny the BJP an opportunity to steal its thunder. Though the BJP turned down the demand for a separate Telangana state when Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government was at the Centre, subsequently it has been vociferous in supporting the demand