Hyderabad/New Delhi: The divisions in the
Andhra Pradesh Congress today deepened with MLAs from non-
Telangana regions planning to mount pressure on MPs from their
areas to quit as the Centre sought to douse tempers, saying it
wants to take "everyone on board" on the Telangana issue.
On a day of dramatic events, the state assembly was
adjourned sine die following an uproar created by members,
while Congress MP L Rajagopal was arrested ahead of his
proposed protest.
In an apparent attempt to lower tempers, the Centre
said it would like to take "everyone on board" on the
Telangana issue and that Parliament cannot take up the issue
without the state Assembly passing a resolution favouring
bifurcation of the state.
On the other side, state and central ministers and MPs
from Telangana wrote a letter to Congress president Sonia
Gandhi thanking her for the government's decision to create a
separate state and pledged to support her.
Congress MLAs from Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra met
under the leadership of Vijayawada MP L Rajagopal and senior
leader J C Diwakar Reddy and decided to mount pressure on MPs
from the region, saying their efforts in New Delhi were
proving "inadequate".
"You should all step down from your post and step up
the fight against the bifurcation of the state," the MLAs told
the MPs.
Finding himself in an unenviable position, Chief
Minister K Rosaiah read the riot act to the dissenting
ministers invoking the fear of high command and telling them
not to resign. Tomorrow, he will be holding his first cabinet
meeting after the Centre's announcement.
Municipal Administration Minister A Ramnarayan Reddy,
from the non-Telangana region, said Rosaiah had instructed
them that he is not going to accept the resignations.
Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily said in New Delhi
that the Centre would address the concerns of people. "We want
to take everybody on board," he told reporters in New Delhi.
Maintaining that there was no no need for anyone to
act in panic, Moily said a "solution will be found".
He ruled out imposition of President's rule in Andhra
Pradesh following violence over the Telangana issue and said
there was no no truth in reports that Rosaiah had either been
asked to quit or he was resigning.
Continuing their campaign against the division of
Andhra Pradesh, MPs of coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema met
Finance Minister and Leader of the Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee
for a second in four days seeking a "clarification" on Home
Minister P Chidambaram's statement on initiating the process
of separate of Telangana.
"Mukherjee assured us that the Resolution has to come
from the state Assembly. Till then, there cannot be a
discussion of the issue in the Lok Sabha," senior MP from
coastal Andhra K S Rao told reporters.
He said the MPs explained to Mukherjee that the
situation was "very grave" and any delay in taking a decision
would cause a "mental divide" in different areas.
The Congress also echoed Mukherjee's views when it
said the Central government would take the next step only
after the state Assembly passes the resolution for Telangana.
Then the party would support it, AICC spokesman Shakeel Ahmad
told reporters.
Rajagopal, supposed to launch an indefinite hunger-
strike here today against the division, was taken into
preventive custody soon after his arrival in Hyderabad from
New Delhi.
On the instructions of Chief Minister K Rosaiah,
Rajagopal was set free in the afternoon and the two met at the
former's residence along with Diwakar Reddy.
Rosaiah requested Rajagopal not to flare up the issue
by sitting on a fast.
"The situation is already tense. Why should you
aggravate it," Rosaiah reportedly told Rajagopal and asked him
to drop the move.
Later, the Lok Sabha MP said Rosaiah told him that the
resolution on Telangana could not be tabled in the Assembly as
the House was adjourned abruptly in view of the en masse
resignation of MLAs from Andhra and Rayalaseema.
Rajagopal then gave up the plan to launch an
indefinite fast "temporarily". However, he told the MLAs and
MLCs at the meeting this evening that he would mobilise about
a lakh people tomorrow to launch a fast.
The MLAs and MLCs will assembly at the statue of Potti
Sriramulu, who laid down his life for the formation of Andhra
state, and pay homage before taking up their fast.
Congress MLAs from Telangana met this afternoon and
passed a resolution thanking Sonia Gandhi for initiating the
process for creation of a Telangana state. They decided to
organise a felicitation meet in Hyderabad for Sonia Gandhi
here on December 16.
-PTI
First Published: Tuesday, December 15, 2009, 00:30