Hyderabad: The peculiar situation in the Congress due to the proposed division of the state came to the fore in the state Assembly during the debate on the Telangana Bill on Wednesday.
With the Congress central leadership holding firm about dividing the state, party members from the Seemandhra region had to look to the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party for help.
Government whip Dronamraju Srinivas, who is vociferously against division, made an emotional appeal to the BJP to understand the plight of the people of the two regions and not support the Bill when it is introduced in Parliament.
Mr Srinivas also put his party colleagues from Telangana in a tight spot when he said that it was Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s agitations over the past few years that had forced the Centre to agree to divide the state.
This did not go down well with Telangana Congress leaders who want to reap electoral benefits by taking credit for creating the new state.
Another whip, E. Anil Kumar, was immediately on his feet to counter Srinivas.
“The struggle for separate Telangana state is decades old. How can Srinivas give credit to KCR? It is Congress under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi that is fulfilling the dreams of Telangana people,”?he said.
Significantly, Telugu Desam’s Revuri Prakash Reddy also gave credit to the TRS supremo. He said one has to give due credit to KCR whose intensified agitation compelled the Centre to cede the separate state.
Prakash Reddy, however, took objection to the TRS targeting his party. He said his party is facing a peculiar situation, with the TRS accusing it of scuttling the division of the state and the YSR Congress accusing it of facilitating the division. The TD decided to back Telangana state to help the party survive, he said.
There was also an exchange of words between Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and TRS member T. Harish Rao. The TRS member questioned the Chief Minister’s claims of impartiality when the latter had sanctioned Rs 6,000 crore for the drinking water scheme for Chittoor, ignoring fluoride-hit areas in Telangana.
He questioned the Chief Minister taking away a medical college and a sainik school to Chittoor.
Harish Rao also referred to former Director General of Police V. Dinesh Reddy’s revelation that Kiran Kumar Reddy had pressurised him to report to the Centre that Maoists would gain the upper hand if Telangana state is created.
