Backlash in Seemandhra

Kiran may hint at his strategy at Pulichintala today

• Seemandhra ministers, MPs harden stand
• Chiru writes to PM, Sonia asking them to accept his resignation; some more likely to follow suit
• Kiran holds marathon meetings, plans to stall Bill
• Lagadapati warns of destabilizing the UPA Govt by quitting en bloc

Hyderabad: The approval of the draft T Bill by the Union Cabinet on Thursday has resulted in a severe backlash in Seemandhra region. It manifested in outburst of popular anger that had brought life to standstill by making the bandh a success. On the other hand, the union ministers, MPs and even Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy seem to have hardened their stand and are working out strategies to see that the process does not move forward.

In New Delhi, the central ministers from Seemandhra region met on Friday and discussed various options that were available to them to see that the State remains united. They expressed their displeasure in no uncertain terms over the manner in which the GoM turned down all their proposals and stuck to the CWC resolution in letter and spirit.

Union Minister for Tourism K Chiranjeevi was the first among his colleagues to write a strongly worded letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and AICC president Sonia Gandhi asking them to accept his resignation. Chiranjeevi said that he was pained at the manner in which the Centre rejected his demand to accord Union Territory status to Hyderabad.

It is learnt that other Union Ministers like Pallam Raju, Kotla Jaya Surya Prakash Reddy who had been batting for Rayala Telangana and D Purandeswari were also contemplating to press for acceptance of their resignations which were submitted earlier. However, some other ministers like Kishore Chandra Deo, Killi Kruparani and Panabaka Lakshmi were not in favour of resigning.

Back in the State, Chief Minister Kiran Reddy held a nearly two-and-half hour long meeting with leaders from Seemandhra at his camp office and decided that they should use all possible means and opportunities to stall the process of carving a separate state. Kiran is likely to throw some light on the issue at the public meeting to be held at Pulichintala project on Saturday. Ministers close to him like S Sailajanath said, “Every action will have its reaction and that would be visible on Saturday.”

Chief Minister who had met the chief justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta on Thursday exuded confidence that all options to challenge the bill in the Supreme Court were still open. He reportedly decided to take the support of MLAs of TDP and YSRC from Seemandhra so that the house would press for voting on the draft T Bill in the Assembly. According to sources, efforts are on to mobilize support of 159 MLAs and defeat the bill on the floor of the assembly. The supporter of the chief ministers are thinking of forming a --joint Action Committee with the support of other like-minded parties to stall Telangana Bill.

At the same time, seven Congress MPs from Seemandhra led by Lagadapati Rajagopal, warned their party high command that they were contemplating to destabilise the UPA by writing to the President that they were no longer backing the government. The MPs who are preparing to withdraw support include Ananta Venkatarami Reddy, Harsha Kumar and Sabbam Hari .

According to Lagadapati, if they withdraw the support, the BJP will have second thoughts and may not support the Bill since as it would be a Bill moved by a minority government.

However, the AICC leadership is also said to be gearing up to meet the new challenges that it may have to face. The AICC general secretary in charge of State affairs, Digvijay Singh, on Friday swung into action and said they had their own strategy to ensure that there would be smooth discussion in the Assembly over the T-Bill and it will be passed by the Parliament without any difficulty. Digvijay made light of the threats issued by his party MPs from Seemandhra headed by Rajagopal, saying, "I welcome their comments."