Pro-Telangana activists celebrate the government's decision to create the new state (file pic)
As the government worked to push its controversial Telangana plan to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh through the Lok Sabha, an Andhra Pradesh minister today said Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy of the Congress would resign in protest.
"Mr Reddy will resign and form a new party," Erasu Pratap Reddy, a state minister, told reporters in Hyderabad. (
LIVE updates) The Chief Minister and other politicians from Seemandhra, or the non-Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh, have been fighting against the plan to divide their state.
Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde presented the bill for discussion in the Lok Sabha as Seemandhra lawmakers kept raising slogans in protest. "We'll try our best to get the bill passed," said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath this morning, after a meeting with the Prime Minister and Mr Shinde.
The main opposition BJP, whose backing the Congress-led Centre needs to pass the Telangana bill, has made it clear that while it supports Telangana, the bill cannot be passed in chaos and without the presence of all stakeholders in the House. It also wants certain amendments to the bill that it says will address key concerns of Seemandhra.
Some suggest that the BJP's stand for Seemandhra MPs to be present in the House when Lok Sabha debates Telangana is linked to their growing proximity to the TDP's Chandrababu Naidu, who's opposed to the division of Andhra Pradesh. Sources say BJP is looking at the TDP as a possible post-poll ally in the south and that's why it may not antagonise Mr Naidu.
The government has reportedly offered to move official amendments to ensure that some of the BJP's demands are met - like sharing revenue from the joint capital of Hyderabad.
The Congress' central ministers from Seemandhra met the BJP yesterday, to request it not to support the division of the state, which the Congress hopes will bring it rich electoral dividends from the Telangana region in the national elections.
Seemandhra is worried about a smaller share of water, power and revenue from Telangana once the new state is created.
16 MPs from across parties were suspended last week after unprecedented violence in Parliament - Congress MP Lagadapati Rajagopal used pepper spray on lawmakers in the Lok Sabha and other MPs yanked mics and broke a computer.