Parties plan political showdowns as AP Assembly to discuss Telangana Bill

Pranab Mukherjee likely to send draft bill to the governor tomorrow to elicit the opinion of members of state assembly before it is introduced in the Parliament

Andhra Pradesh state Legislative Assembly speaker N Manohar is convening the crucial business advisory committee (BAC) meeting  on Wednesday evening to finalise the agenda for the Assembly session, which begins the next day.

Last week, the state government has decided to convene the Assembly from December 12 for the purpose of discussing the draft Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill, which seeks to bifurcate the state by creating Telangana as the 29th state of the Union of India.

President Pranab Mukherjee is expected to send the draft Bill to the governor tomorrow to elicit the opinion of the members of the state Assembly, before it was introduced in the Parliament.

In the event of the draft Bill being referred to the state ahead of the BAC meeting, the speaker may consider straight away taking up the draft Telangana Bill for discussion when the Assembly starts the session at 10 am on Thursday, according to the informed sources.

The speaker has a difficult task at hand in deciding the time to be permitted for concluding the debate as majority of the members may insist on registering their opinions on this historic draft Bill on the floor of the House.

The speaker is also likely to face a tough time during the debate as the legislators are completely divided on the regional lines on the question of state bifurcation. Besides this, opposition parties like YSR Congress and the Telugu Desam Party are planning for a heavy showdown on the floor of the House against the division of the state.

On Monday, speaker Manohar held a meeting with the state director general of police (DGP) Prasada Rao and city police commissioner Anurag Sharma on security arrangements within the Assembly premises and its vicinity. This meeting assumes significance as the Assembly session is  expected to witness a highly-volatile and provocative speeches and actions from both the Telangana and Seemandhra camps.

Apart from this, chairman of Seemandhra joint action committee of government employees, P Ashok Babu, declared that they would lay seize the state Assembly when it takes up debate on the Telangana Bill.  

While ministers from Seemandhra region, including chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, have been stating that the Bill would be defeated on the floor of the House as part of their resistance to the state bifurcation, others in the government say that the Assembly session will confine to airing the opinions without putting the Bill for the vote.

The coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions contribute 177 MLAs to the 294-member state Legislative Assembly, while the 117 MLAs represent Telangana region.

The Congress leadership in Delhi has already clarified that the views of the Assembly would not influence the decision of the UPA government with regard to the state bifurcation. However, the members of Seemandhra are likely to propose several amendments to the draft Bill approved last week by the Union Cabinet.

Signalling a high decibel political activity against the state bifurcation even in the Parliament, some of the MPs from Congress, Telugu Desam Party and YSR Congress had issued notices for moving a no confidence motion against the UPA government on Monday.

YSR Congress to intensify stir
The YSR Congress Party, which observed a two-day bandhlast week in Seemandhra (coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions) in protest against the Centre's decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh, has decided to intensify its stir from Tuesday.