Will Congress finally bite the bullet on Telangana today?

Negotiations on the creation of a Telangana state are reportedly coming to a conclusion with the meeting of top leaders of the Congress which will happen today. According to Congress general secretary in charge of the state, Digvijaya Singh, there are two options for the leaders. Bifurcate Andhra Pradesh to create a separate Telangana state, or let the state stay united. Singh told reporters in New Delhi that a decision “cannot be postponed anymore” but added that “both options are open”. According to a ‘top Congress strategist’ who spoke to the Hindustan Times, the options are to “accede to the demand for a separate Telangana state or to grant a special economic package mixed with doses of autonomy for the region. The move would be similar to that given to the Hyderabad-Karnataka region in the state of Karnataka where a separate development board is to be established and  reservation are to be provided in Karnataka government jobs and educational institutions. A similar move over Telangana would help the Congress retain the votes of those who have been opposed to the splitting of the state, and the party could also hope to gain votes from the Telangana region. [caption id=“attachment_951313” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Protests for a Telangana state. PTI[/caption] According to a report in NDTV, if bifurcation is opted for, one of the options will be to create a separate state out of ten Telangana districts and the other state will be the rest of Andhra. The other option will be to add Anantpur and Kurnool, two Rayalaseema districts, to the ten districts and keep the coastal belt and the rest of the Rayalaseema region as the other half. The Congress might attempt to create a separate Telangana state by bifurcating Andhra Pradesh, a state where the prospects are otherwise not so good for the party, posited an editorial in _Firstpost_ by Sanjay Singh. On the other hand, protests have begun in Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions of Andhra Pradesh, also called Seemandhra, opposing any move to divide the state. In Hyderabad, Rayalaseema Parirakshana Samiti (RPS) founder Byreddy Rajasekhar Reddy Thursday began 52-hour hunger strike, demanding separate statehood for Rayalaseema region. He said Rayala-Telangana state (comprising Rayalaseema and Telangana region) would not be acceptable to people of Rayalaseema. Digvijay Singh has asked the chief minister, Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha and state Congress chief Botsa Satyanarayana to prepare roadmap if the decision is taken either way.   With inputs from IANS