Rayala window still open

Hyderabad: Railway Minister Kotla Suryaprakasha Reddy is slated to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday to take the Rayala Telangana proposal forward. Reddy had discussions with Digvijay Singh, AICC General Secretary in charge of AP, on Monday. He is also planning to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh soon. The resolution passed by the Congress Working Committee last week has left a window open for Rayala Telangana when it said a Group of Ministers would look into all aspects including adding some Seema districts to Telangana.

A committee under the chairmanship of AK Antony, Defence Minister, has been appointed. Antony had informal consultations with the Union Ministers from the state in Parliament’s Central Hall on the opening day of the monsoon session.

Congress leaders of Kurnool and Anantapur districts are considered to be in favour of clubbing their districts with Telangana. Anam Venkatarama Reddy, however, continues to be strident in his opposition to the decision to divide the State. JC Diwakar Reddy, former AP minister, has expressed his tacit acceptance while Sailajanath and Raghuveera Reddy, members of the State Cabinet, are not strongly opposed to the idea of Rayala Telangana. So is the case with another minister TG Venkatesh who observed a token fast at Kurnool on Monday as protest against the decision to divide the State. Erasu Yet another minister, Pratapa Reddy, is understood to have expressed his support to the proposal to carve Rayala Telangana.

Almost all the Union Ministers from Seemandhra had met Digvijay Singh at his residence on Monday. Some of them have come up with a proposal for a corridor between the Andhra State (AP) and Hyderabad by liking Kurnool with Hyderabad through Mahboobnagar district. There are only two Assembly constituencies in Mahaboobnagar district (Jedcherla and Shadnagar) between Kurnool district and Hyderabad.

The ministers proposed that a corridor could be created through Mahaboobnagar district so that Hyderabad could become contiguous and remain as a joint capital for ever. Antony committee will examine this and many other proposals before finalising the policy to be adopted to divide AP. The Antony committee also includes Digvijay Singh, AICC general secretary in-charge of Andhra Pradesh.