Kiran Reddy's Telangana offer stuns leaders

Hyderabad: Much to the shock of a few Seemandhra leaders, Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy seems to have accepted the idea that the state’s bifurcation can’t be stopped.

On Thursday, just hours before Union Cabinet took its final decision on the state’s division, Kiran Kumar Reddy, a staunch integrationist, phoned some Seemandhra ministers and gave two alternatives.

First, to demand that the Telangana state be formed with 10 districts as had been demanded by the T-leaders but with Hyderabad as a Union Territory. If this was not possible, then the Telangana state should be formed with 14 districts clubbing four districts of Rayalaseema region.

Highlights: AP reorganisation draft bill

The Chief Minister told the Seemandhra ministers to support the bifurcation if the Centre accepted either of the two proposals.

During the meeting between Seemandhra Union ministers and Congress MPs at Delhi on Thursday, the Chief Minister’s proposal came for discussion, said a source.

After the meeting, a Seemandhra Congress MP said, “I was shocked when told of the Chief Minister’s proposal. I had never thought that he would compromise on his demand for a united state. Now he is also supporting the state’s division. “I don’t know whether it was his plan to stall the division or whether he thought that if a division was inevitable it would be better to form the Telangana state with 14 districts.”

Next: Ministers differ on resignations

Ministers differ on resignations

??
Seemandhra Union ministers were divided on Thursday over the issue of resignations to protest the Union Cabinet's decision to create a Telangana state with 10 districts.

The ministers and MPs from the region met twice on Thursday, before and after the Cabinet meeting that cleared the Telangana Bill. The MPs pressured the Union ministers to resign immediately.

They asked ministers Kavuri Sambasiva Rao and M.M. Pallam Raju, who had attended the Cabinet meeting, to announce their resignations at the meeting itself.

While three of the ministers agreed to resign, two others who attended the Seemandhra leaders' meeting did not spell out their decision. Some ministers were opposed to the idea.

Sources said that the two Union ministers were likely to submit their resignations from their Cabinet posts and some MPs would follow suit.

Just before the Cabinet meeting, hectic activity was witnessed in New Delhi in Seemandhra and Telangana circles.

Seemandhra Union ministers and Congress MPs met at Sambasiva Rao’s residence and discussed the latest situation and also the strategy they would adopt in the Cabinet meeting.

During the meeting, Mr Pallam Raju, K. Chiranjeevi and Kotla Surya Prakash Reddy agreed to quit their posts. Seem

andhra Congress MPs, meanwhile, said that they had already given in their resignations.
The Telangana Congress MPs, on the other hand, met AICC president Sonia Gandhi at the Parliament Central Hall after the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day and asked her to take a decision as per the earlier decision of the Congress Working Committee.

The Telangana MPs also met the Union ministers who were in the Group of Ministers, and opposed the Rayala Telangana proposal.

They demanded that the new Telangana state have just 10 districts with Hyderabad as its capital.

According to sources, some of these Union ministers told them that the Union Cabinet would take a decision in favour of their demand.

Speaking to the media later, Telangana Congress MPs Rapolu Anand Bhaskar, Ponnam

Prabhakar and Palvai Govardhan Reddy said that a few Union ministers had assured them that the Cabinet would decide on Telangana state with 10 districts.
A delegation of Congress and TRS MPs from Telangana also met Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and conveyed their apprehensions over inclusion of the two Rayalaseema districts in the proposed Telangana state.

 Prabhakar said that they had met the Prime Minister to urge him to carve out the Telangana state as per the CWC decision.

Sources said that GoM member and Union minister Jairam Ramesh supported the Rayala Telangana proposal.

To garner support for this, he met senior BJP leader M.Venkaiah Naidu and asked for the main Opposition party’s support. Mr Naidu, however, rejected the proposal outright.