Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy has decided to hold district-wise meetings at his camp office to interact with Seemandhra Congress MLAs to assess the strength of MLAs who will oppose the Telangana Bill when it is put before the state Assembly.
According to sources, the Chief Minister will start the meetings from next week, well before the Assembly session, which is expected to begin in the second week of December. The CM will interact with MLAs individually for 30 minutes to get their opinion on state division. He also wants to take the MLAs' opinion in writing duly signed by them. When the Congress Working Committee announced its decision to divide the state and create the separate state of Telangana, all the Congress legislators from the Seemandhra region had opposed the decision in one voice and vowed to defeat the Telangana Bill in the Assembly.
Subsequently, some MLAs had changed their minds and decided to abide by the party high command's decision.
At present it is not known how many Seemandhra Congress MLAs will support the Bill and how many will oppose it and this is what the Chief Minister is eager to find out.
Ministers giving T?opinion doubtful
There is some doubt whether all Congress Seemandhra ministers and MLAs will attend the meetings arranged by the Chief Minister. And even if they do, whether they will agree to give their opinion in writing. The Union Cabinet is expected to approve the Andhra Pradesh State Reorganisation Bill (Telangana Bill) in its meeting scheduled for December 4. After that, the President of India may send the Bill to the state Assembly by December 10. The Assembly session is expected to begin in the second week of December.
