Would dissolution of Assembly be Kiran Kumar Reddy's last gambit?

HYDERABAD: Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy's camp is said to be seriously considering premature dissolution of the Assembly as the "final option" to thwart bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

"We have suggested to the Chief Minister that Assembly should be dissolved. We have already taken legal opinion on this and we are awaiting the final view," Minor Irrigation Minister T G Venkatesh, a strong opponent of bifurcation, told reporters here today.

"If the House is dissolved, there is no issue of bifurcation," he said.

Sources said that gameplan of the CM camp was to see to it that Presidential reference on the division, as mandated under Article 3 of Constitution, did not come up before the Legislature.

The state reorganisation Bill cannot be introduced in Parliament unless it has been "referred to the state Legislature".

As he has anyway rebelled against the Congress high command over the bifurcation, the Chief Minister need not require any approval from New Delhi to prematurely dissolve the House, sources close to him contended.

The Chief Minister's main strategy, sources said, was to ensure that House was not convened before December 20, the last day of Parliament's winter session, so that the division Bill was stalled.

If the Centre tried to force Kiran to convene the Legislative session immediately to discuss the draft reorganisation Bill, the option before the Chief Minister will be to dissolve the House to avoid the Presidential reference.

"That is, of course, the last recourse for us," a minister close to the Chief Minister said.