No bifurcation, says Lagadapati

The Seemandhra leaders who see the latest decision of the Congress party referring the T issue to Congress Working Committee as step towards keeping the state united resorted to cricket jargon to express their confidence that the state will not be divided.

At a press conference on Saturday, MP Lagadapati Rajagopal prophesied that the star batsman of United Andhra Team will lead them to victory. The MP refused to name the star batsman but gave ample indications that it was the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy.

Rajagopal while accepting that the "Damocles sword" of separation continues to hang over the head of the Telugu people, said that the Telugu Thalli has a brahmastram (akin to nuclear weapon) which would ensure that the state will not be bifurcated. The state will soon come out of the political crisis. He hoped that the decision will come in about a month's time after the CWC meeting was over.

Claiming that the Congress won 2004 elections with good majority where ever its own candidates contested in the T region, he said that in 2009 the opposition TDP and left parties allied with TRS and lost badly. The Congress on its own with thumping majority. Once again in 2014 elections the Congress will emerge as single largest party. He said once the state is bifurcated, Telangana will turn into ' bhikari' (penniless ) state as most of the revenue generated in the state was from Seemandhra region and not from Telangana.