Electoral gains reason for bifurcation: Jairam

New Delhi: When the Telangana movement was at its peak two years ago, there was one question which was bugging everyone – will the Congress party bifurcate Andhra Pradesh or not. And how did the Congress come to this decision?

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, who worked closely in Andhra Pradesh, spilled the beans about how the Congress came to the decision to divide the State. It did only after the Congress leadership was convinced that the bifurcation would yield electoral dividends for the party.

This assurance on the poll prospects came from Ghulam Nabi Azad, said Jairam Ramesh in his new book 'Old History and new Geography—Bifurcating Andhra Pradesh’.

Ghulam Nabi Azad was able to convince the Congress leadership that bifurcation would yield electoral dividends for the Congress

Listing out the details what happened after the submission of Srikrishna Committee report for the Congress to have decided to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh against Committee recommendations, Jairam Ramesh said that it was the Azad’s conviction that Congress stands to gain post bifurcation.

“Telangana had 17 seats and Seemandhra 25. The Congress must have realized its prospects in Seemandhra were bleak in any case because of a 10-year anti-incumbency and because of the growing strength of the YSRCP – it was, therefore, trying to minimise its losses. But these are all, I must emphasise, only intelligent guesses.

The only thing that is incontrovertible is that P Chidambaram’s statement of December 9, 2009, had been a decisive turning point. Also indisputable is that thereafter Ghulam Nabi Azad was able to convince the Congress leadership that bifurcation would yield electoral dividends for the Congress,” said Jairam Ramesh in his book.