With rumours abuzz that the Group of Ministers headed by Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde is reportedly planning to include two Rayalaseema districts of Anantapur and Kurnool in the Telangana state, there is a fresh controversy surrounding
Culturally, it Kurnool and Anantapur are totally different and may not match that of Telangana, but it seems political stakes are much above that.
The advantage of merging with Telangana is that the two districts will be associated with Hyderabad, the most developed city and the proposed joint capital of both Telangana and Seemandhra.
This way, Congress wants to keep its ally Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen happy.
But by splitting Rayalaseema, which is dominated by Jagan, the Congress hopes to pouch upon his voters and sweep 28 seats in Rayalaseema and leaving a minimum number for YSRC and TDP.
Also, the Congress hopes to curtail the control of YSRC chief Jagan Mohan Reddy and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu. Jagan has established a good clout in Seemandhra with his united AP stand.
For now, Seemandhra leaders aren't totally opposed to the idea of Rayala Telangana as they feel it would take some fire out of the Telangana sentiment and would ensure a sense of safety for people from Seemandhra.
Currently, Kiran Kumar Reddy has the support of 30-40 MLAs. Moreover, with leaders from Kurnool willing a merger with Telangana rather than coastal Andhra, the Congress plans to derail Kiran's plans of consolidating his control over Seemandhra.
Moreover, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy has been the bone of contention for Congress because of his open revolt against the party's decision on Telangana. Reddy, who has a huge clout in Seemandhra, has been propagating the cause of
Originally, Telangana would have 119 Assembly seats and 17 Lok Sabha seats while Seemandhra would have 175 Assembly seats and 25 Lok Sabha seats. So, now both Rayala Telangana and Seemandhra will have an equal number of 21 Lok Sabha and 147 assembly
In case, the government goes ahead with Rayala Telangana plan, two districts of Rayalaseema (Kurnool and Anantapur) will be part of Telangana and the other two will be part of Seemandhra.
As per earlier plan, after the bifucrcaton of Andhra Pradesh, the 23 districts would be divided between Telangana (10) and 13 for the rest of Andhra- nine of coastal Andhra and four of Rayalaseema (Anantapur, Chittoor, Kadapa and Kurnool).
Senior Congress leader and MP V. Hanumanth Rao was the first to express doubts on whether the main Opposition would extend its support to the Bill if it comes in the form of Rayala-Telangana. “The BJP may reject such a Bill altogether,” he said.
The BJP and Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which are against Rayala Telangana, are all set to oppose it when the Bill comes up in Assembly before it is sent to Cabinet. They are insisting on Centre sticking to its earlier plan of Telangana state with 10
Krishna River | File Photo
Also, once Telangana state is carved out, there will be trouble in Seemandhra state over the capital. Rayalaseema leaders will probably insist on Kurnool, invoking the pre-1956 status of Andhra state.
There are other reasons too. The Centre had proposed Hyderabad to be the joint capital of Telangana and the residuary state for 10 years, but now it has realised that it is not possible to make it a joint capital under the existing provisions of the
That's because it is said to be a politically tilted move to gain mileage for the forthcoming general polls. The new idea of Rayala Telangana is about adding Kurnool and Anantapur districts of Rayalaseema region to Telangana's 10 districts.
What fuelled those speculations was deputy Chief Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha telling newsmen recently that he was asked by Union minister Jairam Ramesh specifically about the Rayala Telangana proposal. Coming from someone like the Deputy Chief
This has come up days before the Telangana Bill is expected to be placed before the Lok Sabha in winter session.