Telangana rages, Congress in huddle

NEW DELHI: The Congress’ dilemma over the Telangana statehood issue became more acute on Tuesday as the party grappled for a way to defuse the movement that continues to grow with Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrasekahara Rao’s 10-day-old ‘fast-unto-death’.

A worried Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, K Rosaiah, is set to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday to discuss the tricky situation.

Officially, he is slated to meet Ms Gandhi to greet her on her birthday, but his preoccupation with finding a solution to the Telangana tangle will, without doubt, take up much of the meeting.

The state government is expecting trouble on December 10 when students and other activists from the Telangana region are expected to converge in the state capital to participate in ‘chalo assembly’ call given by TRS. The government has made elaborate security arrangements for the day to prevent matters from getting out of hand.

However, Congress might have to do more than just find a way to defuse the situation as Mr Rao’s fast has re-energised the Telangana movement. His health further deteriorated on Tuesday, putting further pressure on the state government.

In the capital, AICC in-charge of Andhra Pradesh, Veerappa Moily, met Congress MPs belonging to Telangana and Andhra regions of the state separately.

With Congress divided down the middle on the question of carving out a separate state, sources said the party had asked its 12 Telangana MPs and about 20 from Andhra not to make any public statements on the matter. The division within Congress has added to the pressure from the Opposition, which has sensed the ruling party’s inability to move on the Telangana issue.

TRS is leading the charge on the Telangana call but is backed fully by BJP. Other Opposition parties such as TDP and PRP have also agreed to back a resolution of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly seeking a separate Telangana.

After an all-party meeting on Monday evening in Hyderabad, Congress has emerged as the main roadblock to the formation of Telangana as it has refused to take a position on the issue.

For the record, its spokesperson Shakeel Ahmad maintained that the party supports the call for Telangana but added it should happen only through “political consensus”.

However, the state government turned down the proposal for the Assembly resolution on Telangana on Tuesday morning, giving away the Congress’ real position on the matter.

The CM cited the need for wider consultations with leaders from all regions of the state as well as the all-important clearance from the high command before taking up the resolution. The Assembly was adjourned for the day after the TRS disrupted proceedings. Mr Rosaiah has now effectively put the onus of the decision on the UPA government at the Centre.

However, the party’s central command has apprehensions about giving in to the Telangana demand as it will open up itself to a host of other such calls for a separate states of Gorkhaland (West Bengal), Bundelkhand and Harit Pradesh (Uttar Pradesh) and Vidarbha (Maharashtra).

In fact, RLD chief Ajit Singh, whose party is a strong force in the Jat-dominated agrarian belt of Western UP, has come out to back the TRS’s on-going agitation for Telangana. He said that he was all for “smaller states” including that of Harit Pradesh.