New Delhi/Hyderabad:
Top leaders of the Congress are expected to discuss today whether a Telangana state should be carved out of Andhra Pradesh. Anyone who matters in the state cabinet has landed in Delhi in anticipation of a decision. In the words of Congress general secretary in charge of the state, Digvijaya Singh, there are two options: bifurcate Andhra Pradesh to get a separate Telanagana state or then stay united.
State Congress leaders led by Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, have carried with them detailed roadmaps on both options as sought by Mr Singh when he visited Hyderabad earlier this month.
If the government chooses bifurcation, one option will be to bunch the 10 Telangana districts into a separate state to meet the demand of pro-Telangana groups and the rest of Andhra Pradesh will be the other state. Hyderabad, a big bone of contention, could continue as a common capital for the first five to ten years.
The second option will be to add two Rayalaseema districts, Anantpur and Kurnool, to the 10 Telangana districts, and keep the coastal belt and the rest of the Rayalaseema region as the other half. Then, the state will be equally divided with 147 Assembly and 21 Lok Sabha seats on each side.
Congress strategists believe that option two will serve multiple political purposes. For one, the two Rayalseema districts in the new state will limit the influence of the Telegana Rashtriya Samiti as they will account for four Lok Sabha and 28 Assembly seats. In such, the TRS is likely to find it difficult to get 74 seats and a majority in the new state on its own.
Also, it would add to the mix Jagan Reddy's YSR-Congress Party and the Telugu Desam Party. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), a predominantly Hyderabad-based party but with pockets of influence in some Rayalaseema districts, had favoured this solution if the state is bifurcated.
But there is a catch. Many leaders in Rayalaseema see it as a distinct third region and oppose this option.
Leaders from all parties, including the Congress, in Telangana have rejected the stay-united option. They want only statehood now, not financial packages and other sops, they say.
On the other side are leaders who support a united Andhra Pradesh, whom the Congress cannot ignore. Politicians from coastal Andhra Pradesh are meeting in Delhi and plan protests against bifurcation of the state.