Hyderabad: In the wake of speculations that Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy plans to launch new political party after resigning from his post after opposing the Telangana Bill in the Assembly, Intelligence Bureau (IB) submitted a report to the Centre about the latest political situation in the state. The Chief Minister’s camp obtained details of the intelligence report.
According to sources the Chief Minister is in two minds about resigning after the Telangana Bill is passed in the Assembly or after Parliament approval. It means that the Chief Minister will resign before the state bifurcation.
After Parliament’s approval for Telangana Bill, it will take some time to complete the process of bifurcation. So the high command will have to select a candidate who will continue as a Chief Minister of the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh.
According to sources, the Intelligence Bureau has suggested five possible successors to Kiran Kumar Reddy in its report. Union minister Kotla Surya Prakash Reddy, state ministers Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, Botsa Satyanarayana, Kanna Laxminarayana and N. Raghuveera Reddy’s names feature in the list.
The report states that Kiran Kumar Reddy enjoys the support of 45 MLAs, 11 ministers and 10 MPs.
The Intelligence Bureau said the majority of them support Kiran Kumar Reddy’s stand on state bifurcation, and not personally. It also said that Kiran Kumar Reddy has no plans to launch a new political party as of now, but some of his followers are pressuring him to float a political party.
The IB predicted that Kiran Kumar Reddy will remain in the Congress only.
According to sources, the high command has started the process of identifying the successor to Kiran Kumar Reddy.
In view of the IB report, agriculture minister Laxminarayana’s meeting with AICC president Sonia Gandhi has assumed greater significance.
In the next few days, the high command is likely to summon some more state Congress leaders to know their opinions.
