Hyderabad:
The Andhra Pradesh assembly on Thursday emphatically rejected the creation of a Telangana state, in a move engineered by Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, embarrassing the Centre and posing a moral dilemma for President Pranab Mukherjee, who has to take the process forward.
Mr Reddy later told NDTV, "This bill should go into the dustbin in this form."
Here are the 10 latest developments in the Telangana story:
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh told NDTV that the state's rejection does not matter; Parliament will vote on the bill to create Telangana in the session beginning on February 5, the last before the national election, due by May. (Watch)
"If the assembly resolution does not matter, then why was the bill sent to us," Mr Reddy later said. (Watch) He has already dared his own party and said he will quit politics if the bill is introduced in its current form in Parliament. On Thursday, Mr Reddy declared that he will do "everything to stop the bifurcation of the state".
"The bill was sent for comments and not a vote. The assembly resolution will not affect anything," said Digvijaya Singh. "The bill will be passed if opposition parties stick to their stand."
This was hours after the state assembly, in a largely symbolic move, passed by voice vote the chief minister's resolution rejecting the bill to create Telangana. The resolution said the bill seeks to divide the state without any reason or consensus and "ignores the very basis of creating Andhra Pradesh, the first linguistic state of independent India."
The opinion of the assembly is not binding on the President, but poses an ethical question. It is his prerogative to clear the bill for discussion and vote in Parliament. Sources say he is likely to consult legal experts on his next step.
Sources say the government has begun discussions with BJP to ensure bipartisan support for its plan to divide Andhra Pradesh and turn the 10 districts of Telangana into India's 29th state.
Pro-Telangana leaders said the state assembly resolution was expected, and "not worth the paper it was printed on." "In two weeks, there will be a Telangana state," said K Chandrasekhara Rao, leader of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi. (Read)
Over 9,000 amendments were proposed during discussions in the state assembly. Digvijaya Singh said a Group of Ministers would look into these suggestions before the Parliament vote.
If the Telangana proposal is not cleared, Andhra Pradesh will be undivided for the national polls. That will rescue politicians like the Chief Minister who belong to the non-Telangana regions of Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra, which will form the residuary state. But the Congress stands to lose in both regions.
Residents of "Seemandhra" as the two regions are together referred to, are worried about receiving less water and power than they have so far. Telangana has been arguing for decades that its resources are unfairly exploited by Seemandhra.
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