Kishore Chandra Deo feels only 3-way split can save Andhra Pradesh

NEW DELHI: Tribal Affairs Minister Kishore Chandra Deo, a union cabinet heavyweight from Andhra Pradesh, has now called for the trifurcation of the state and blasted Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, laying bare fissures at the top echelons of the government as it struggles to deal with the after-effects of its decision to create Telangana.

Breaking his silence on the issue almost a month after the Congress announced its decision to bifurcate the state into Seemandhra and Telangana, the normally outspoken Deo, an MP from Araku, blamed Reddy and state Congress president Botsa Satyanarayana for “engineering assaults” on lawmakers and central ministers from the Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.

Deo, who has been an active proponent of a united Andhra Pradesh who offered different solutions to party high command to solve the impasse, has called for trifurcation of Andhra Pradesh into Telangana, Rayalaseema and Andhra Pradesh.

“I am of the view that the only solution in the present situation is to trifurcate the state and grant separate statehood for Rayalseema. This will assuage the feelings of all three regions and is the only permanent solution,” Deo told ET in an interview.

While Deo has so far not been a part of any delegation of Seemandhra MPs and central ministers to New Delhi, he has presented his case in a note to Sonia Gandhi, Congress V-P Rahul Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the party’s fourmember committee under Defence Minister AK Anthony constituted to address grievances of all sections of Andhra leaders.

Justifying his trifurcation demand, Deo has said his suggestion could create viable states — Telangana and Andhra with 17 Lok Sabha seats each and Rayalaseema with eight seats. “Such a division will bring parity in the number of Parliament seats that are there in Telangana and Andhra regions.

Rayalaseema with eight LS seats will be a larger state than Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand....” Deo has argued in the note. Deo criticised Congress general secretary formerly in-charge of AP, Ghulam Nabi Azad, saying there was a feeling among people that Azad had worked with a “pre-determined mind” and had consulted very few leaders from the state.

“The people of AP are, however, of the impression that a hasty decision was taken keeping in view only the results of ensuing elections, which is also based on purely speculative and theoretical assessments,” Deo said.