Will KVP’s bill come up for voting today?

​New Delhi: Amid the fight between the Congress and the TDP-BJP combine over the Private Member's Bill introduced by Congress MP K V P Ramachandra Rao seeking amendments to the AP Reorganisation Act 2014 to provide Special Status to AP, a question still rankles every one: Will the Bill come up for voting this Friday or not?

Last time it could not be taken up and got postponed. This time the Congress high command got more active and set the ball in motion to retrieve some lost ground in AP by personally guiding the AP Congressmen in this regard. It had summoned the APCC leadership too to the Capital and suggested one- on- one meeting with the regional parties.

However, no one is sure whether it could be taken up on Friday though it is listed in the House. With other issues dominating the day, there is a possibility it could be washed away, opine political pundits.

The Congress is sparing no effort to embarrass the TDP assuming that the TDP and the BJP would somehow skirt the issue of extending support to the Bill ignoring the reiteration of the TDP MPs' that they were not averse to extending the support.

"Let it come up first for discussion and division. Too many things could happen by tomorrow and the House may not see it at all during this monsoon session. So why get excited about a useless Private Member's Bill which has no bearing on anything," is how the BJP leaders responded.

The TDP, however, is more cautious. The confusion in its ranks has given way to clarity regarding their support to the Bill. It sees no threat to its credibility at all if it supports the same as it is in the forefront of the struggle to secure the Special Status.

Responding to the taunts of APCC president N Raghuveera Reddy, the TDP MPs, led by Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Y S Chowdhary said that they would certainly vote for the Bill's amendments even though it had been introduced by the Congress which bifurcated the State and ruined AP whimsically. There was no reason for the TDP not to support any effort by anyone in favour of the State as it was in the forefront in demanding the Special Status.

“People like Raghuveera Reddy, who never cared for or bothered about the people of Andhra Pradesh should not strain their vocal chords much in this regard. Bill or no Bill, AP people would never forget the betrayal of the Congress to them. However, what was surprising was the charge of the Congress leaders that the TDP was not extending its support to the Special Status,” they said.

Raghuveera should recall the past when people pasted posters in his constituency seeking his whereabouts while he was a minister, they added. The Congress had no moral right to criticise or drag N Chandrababu Naidu, who was relentlessly striving to develop the State, they said.

Earlier, the APCC president claimed that eight parties other than the Congress had extended their support to the move. Speaking to the media along with former MLC, G Rudraraju, he said they consulted these political parties during the last two days.

Expressing confidence that the Bill would be passed by the House, he said the only hitch seemed to be the TDP and the BJP combine. Despite repeated appeals to AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and the BJP leadership, both were not responding favourably at all, he alleged.

If the Chief Minister was really committed to the welfare of the people and the development of the State, he should direct his members to vote for the bill and not avoid it, he said. Questioning Y S Chowdhary for delaying taking oath as a member in the RS, he wondered whether it was proper on his part in doing so when an important Bill was scheduled to come up for voting. "Will he vote at all," asked Raghuveera adding that the TDP and the BJP would go down in the history as villains for betraying the sentiments of AP.