Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy with other party supporters during a dharna at Jantar Mantar.
Union ministers and Congress lawmakers from Seemandhra, engaged in a confrontation with their party's central leadership over their insistence on creating Telangana ahead of the general election, forced the Centre to convene another meeting of the Group of Ministers today to accommodate some of the changes suggested by them in the draft bill. The GoM is likely to consider them to bring them on board. The Cabinet meeting has been rescheduled and will now meet tomorrow to clear the revised bill.
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In a huge embarrassment for the ruling Congress, its own MPsfrom Seemandhra have given notice for a non-confidence motion against PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh over the plan to split Andhra Pradesh to create aseparate Telangana state.
Besides Congress MPs from Seemandhra, or the non-Telangana region that isopposed to bifurcation, members of Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party havealso submitted notice for a no-confidence motion. Mr Naidu met Narendra Modi,BJP's prime ministerial candidate, last night.
For the second consecutive day both houses of Parliament witnessed angry, loudand persistent disruptions over the plans to create Telangana. Parliament is inits final session before the national elections, due by May.
Most leaders from the state, both pro and anti-bifurcation, are camped in thecapital. Both groups are expected to meet the President later today. Supportersof both sides of the political divide yesterday clashed outside Andhra Bhawan,the state's guest house in the capital.
The union government has said Telangana, one of the three regions of AndhraPradesh, will be made India's 29th state. The other two regions, referred to as"Seemandhra" are virulently opposed to this and their representativessay they will fight the move.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy is making desperate efforts thescuttle the bill. He sat on a dharna at Delhi's Jantar Mantar and then met thePresident yesterday to request him to "use his powers" to stop thebifurcation of his state. The move, he contends, has not been well thoughtthrough.
Last week, Mr Reddy led an initiative that resulted in the Andhra Pradesh statelegislature rejecting the Telangana bill that the Centre wants to push throughParliament. The Assembly sent back the bill seeking more than 9000 changes. TheAndhra Pradesh Assembly's opinion is not binding on the Centre.
The Congress' central leadership wants Parliament to debate and vote on thebill in the current session so that it can make electoral gains in Telangana inthe national election due by May. But state leaders from the Congress,including Kiran Kumar Reddy, say they will be punished by voters if the stateis split.
Once the Cabinet approves the bill, it will be sent to the President for hisassent and then will be voted on in Parliament. A ministerial panel had earlierthis week cleared the draft legislation, called the Andhra PradeshReorganisation Bill, after minor changes.
For the Telangana plan to be cleared by Parliament, the main opposition party,the BJP, must back it. "The chief minister himself is openly opposing hisparty. We are in support of Telangana," said the party's Ravi ShankarPrasad, but added that the concerns of people from Seemandhra must be addressed.
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