Digvijay asks state leadership to be ready for big decision on Telangana

Says I am requesting the chief minister, the PCC president and the deputy CM to prepare a road map keeping both the options open as to what would be the course of action following the decision

The Congress party's incharge of Andhra Pradesh affairs Digvijay Singh on Monday asked the state chief minster and the Pradesh Congress Committee president to prepare the road map for implementing the soon-to-be taken decision on the issue of Telangana statehood.

He said the decision-making process in respect of the long-pending statehood demand had reached the final stages and only two options were being considered by the leadership -- either to retain the united Andhra Pradesh or to create a Telangana state. He termed as rumours the other so-called options like offering a financial package or creation of an enlarged Telangana by adding two districts from the Rayalaseema region as has been reported by some media.

"I am requesting the chief minister, the PCC president and the deputy chief minister to prepare a road map keeping both the options open as to what would be the course of action following the decision," Singh said at a press conference on his first visit to Hyderabad after the Congress high command appointed him as AICC general secretary in-charge of AP affairs replacing Union health minister Gulam Nabi Azad last month.

Earlier, addressing a meeting of the party office bearers at Gandhi Bhavan, Digvijay Singh reportedly asked the party men to accept and adhere to the party decision irrespective of whichever way it goes.

Responding to a question on what did he mean about a road map, Singh said a political strategy and an administrative action needs to be put in place ahead of the decision. "I have had the experience myself when Chattishgarh was carved out of Madhya Pradesh. It is not an easy decision and the process is quite intricate. However, a decision will be taken in the best interests of the nation, of the state and of the people," Digvijay Singh said.

On how confident he was about the party machinery and leaders of both the regions backing the likely decision, he said the party in the state will implement the decision in the right spirit. Stating that the party has a political challenge ahead in the 2014 elections, he acknowledged the electoral contribution of AP to the Congress to the extent of saying that the UPA-I was possible only because of the larger mandate given to the party in the 2004 elections.

Responding to a question on the process likely to be adopted by the Centre in the event of deciding in favour of the Telangana state, he said while the process had been to refer the issue of statehood to the state legislative Assembly, the outcome, however, would not be binding on the UPA government.

The Congress party had made an electoral promise for the first time in 2004 stating that it would positively look into the demand for separate statehood following the pre-poll alliance with Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) headed by K Chandrasekhara Rao. "While we had promised to set up a second state reorganisation commission it could not happen," Digvijay admitted.

What followed after the Congress victory in 2004 were a series of flip-flops by the ruling party on the issue with the then chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy strongly opposing any move involving the creation of a new state.

The mother of all the flip-flops came a few months after the demise of YSR in December 2009 when the UPA announced the process for creation of Telangana only to retract few days later under the intense pressure from the united opposition put up by the coastal Andhra leaders by announcing mass resignations against the division of the state.

Digvijay's directive to the party leaders on toeing the party decision was seen as part of an effort by the party high command to ensure that the 2009 experience was not repeated this time around. This was already evident in the statement made by the Union Cabinet Minister Kavuri Sambasiva Rao, who was at the helm of the anti-statehood lobby till recently, that he would accept the party's decision.