Seemandhra to protest against bifurcation

With clear indications that the ruling Congress party at the Centre is in favour of carving out a Telangana state, people in Andhra and Rayalaseema regions (Seemandhra) appear to be gearing up for a prolonged agitation in protest against the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh (AP).

The executive committee of the AP Non-gazetted Officers met here on Saturday and chalked-out an agitational programme starting from Monday. The programme includes staging dharnas before the houses of Seemandhra ministers, MPs and MLAs, holding rallies and public meetings in Seemandhra districts and going on a pen-down strike from August 6.

In Anantapur, students boycotted classes on Saturday, held a rally and staged a demonstration on the Hyderabad-Bangalore national highway. On Friday, the Seemandhra students joint action committee held a demonstration before the Andhra University. It had also decided to stage dharnas in front of the houses of MLAs hailing from the two regions.

On the political front, 16 MLAs belonging to the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), floated by Kadapa MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, had submitted their resignations to Assembly Speaker, Nadendla Manohar. Three MLAs from the ruling Congress, A Prabhakara Reddy, M Sridharkrishna Reddy (both belonging to Nellore district) and Veerashiva Reddy from Kadapa district, have also submitted their resignation to the Speaker in protest against the likelihood of bifurcation of the state.

It may be recalled that in December 2009, almost all the ministers and legislators hailing from Seemandhra belonging to all political parties had resigned forcing the Centre to back out from its decision to initiate the process of creation of Telangana state.

However, the situation now is different from the previous episode with some of the Congress ministers and MLAs from Seemandhra maintaining that they would abide by the decision of the party high command and the Opposition Telugu Desam Party legislators maintaining a strategic silence at the behest of their leader, N Chandrababu Naidu, who wanted them not to react till a decision on the statehood was announced.

Meanwhile, as a precautionary measure, paramilitary forces have been deployed in the state capital, adjoining Rangareddy district and Nizamabad where Seemandhra people have a large presence.