Forming Telangana won't be easy, feel many in Congress

Though the Centre announced that it had “initiated the process” for forming a separate Telangana state, many in the ruling Congress party feel this might be easier said than done.

In a first sign that things would not be so easy, Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) opposed any resolution in the state Assembly in favour of a separate state. More than 90 MLAs, across party lines, have tendered their resignation in Andhra Pradesh.

In Delhi, L Rajagopal (Lok Sabha MP from Vijaywada elected from the Congress) handed over his resignation letter to Speaker Meira Kumar. Two TDP MPs have sent their resignations to party chief Naidu. One more Congress MP, S Hari, is to resign on Friday.

The Telangana issue also emerged at a Union Cabinet meeting today. Home Minister P Chidambaram gave a detailed explanation why the Centre had to make an announcement. A senior member of the Cabinet also remarked later, “as long as Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was alive, he handled the situation very well. But after his death, there is no such leader in our party in Andhra Pradesh of that stature. So, we had to buckle under the popular sentiments.”

The decision to give some sort of assurance to those agitating for a separate Telangana state was taken last night at a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. Here, the PM said he was deeply concerned about the health of Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrashekhar Rao. The PM insisted on a quick announcement to reassure the agitators that the government was considering their demands. Mukherjee and Chidambaram agreed with PM’s stand and the two ministers quickly drafted the announcement.

But as protests against the Centre’s move rocked the Congress camp today, party president Sonia Gandhi held a meeting with all non-Telangana Lok Sabha MPs from Andhra this evening.