Centre summons Telangana, Andhra governor amid inter-state row

The central government has summoned E.S.L. Narasimhan, the governor of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, to New Delhi amid a raging row between the two states over the special powers of the governor in the common capital of Hyderabad.

The governor is leaving for the national capital Thursday evening. He will meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday.

He is likely to brief the minister about the latest developments and the rift between the two states in the wake of the cash-for-vote scandal and phone-tapping.

Narasimhan has been summoned couple of days after the Attorney General of India reportedly advised him to monitor the probe into the cash-for-vote scandal by using his special powers under section 8 of Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.

Andhra Pradesh has been demanding the implementation of section 8 to ensure protection to people of all regions living in Hyderabad.

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had also called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi a few days ago to demand implementation of the section and also a probe into the alleged phone tapping by the Telangana government.

Naidu made the demands after a legislator of his Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was arrested by Telangana's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and the airing of an audio tape of Naidu's alleged telephonic conversation with nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson.

TDP's deputy leader in Telangana assembly, A. Revanth Reddy, was arrested on May 31 while he was offering Rs.50 lakh to Stephenson to induce him to vote for the TDP-BJP candidate in the Telangana legislative council election.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government has accused Naidu of raising the demand for implementation of section 8 to escape from law in the bribery scandal while the Andhra TDP government has charged Telangana of tapping the phones of Naidu and his cabinet colleagues.

While Andhra has hailed the Attorney General's reported advice to the governor to exercise his powers, TRS has warned of mass movement against any move to hand over law and order to the governor.

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao met the governor to convey his strong opposition.

Arguing that law and order is a state subject, TRS leaders say the situation in Hyderabad is totally peaceful and does not warrant implementation of section 8.