Meet Congress' Telangana foes: Chief Minister Kiran Reddy, TRS, GJM

While the definition of success and failure in politics lends itself to endless arguments, one has to agree that the division of a state puts the said state’s chief minister’s political career in more trouble than any number of scams can. Political victory is usually measured by the efficacy with which a party or a leader quashes dissent in a constituency - and in the case of a state splitting, a politician’s talent at the same starts looking questionable. Understandably, therefore, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy has refused to align himself with the sentiment of a majority in the Congress - that of letting Andhra Pradesh to be split and let Telangana be formed as a separate state. In recent political history, a split was among the several things that cost RJD its sway over Bihar. Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in 2000 and that was the last term the Lalu-Rabri duo stayed in the government. JD(U)’s Nitish Kumar overthrew them in the next term. [caption id=“attachment_992757” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Clashes over the formation of Telangana. AFP.[/caption] Weighing his future well, Kiran Kumar Reddy reportedly told AP AICC chief Digvijaya Singh that he will not support the split. “I will not be a party to any destructive decision”, Kiran reportedly told AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh, hours before the latter attended the Congress Core Group meeting at the Prime Minister’s residence last evening, sources close to him said. Now reports suggest that a severely disgruntled Reddy might have already submitted his resignation to party president Sonia Gandhi late yesterday evening. According to a report on The Times of India, the resignation has been already handed over to Sonia Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence. TOI quotes an unidentified source:

But the CM stuck to his guns and made it clear that he could not and would not preside over the division of the state as he was principally against it. Azad and Digvijay then told him to convey the same to Sonia. However, the CM could not secure an appointment and finally, due to the intervention of Azad, managed to get an audience with the party chief at 5 pm. Kiran Kumar then reiterated his position and handed over his resignation to Sonia

The issue was reportedly taken up in a core committee meeting of the Congress yesterday. Meanwhile, details trickled in about the formation of the new state. According to another TOI report, two districts from Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh might be sucked into the new Telangana. Incidentally, the decision to separate Telangana back to an individual state from Andhra Pradesh was put on hold by the government of India in 2009, following severe agitation from the Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra regions of the state.  The TOI report points at what could have propelled the Congress to give a go ahead to Telangana with such urgency in the run-up to the polls in 2014. The report says:

Sources said the population of Muslims in Telangana would go up by 2% while that of dalits would also increase if Kurnool and Ananthapur districts are made part of Telangana. The minorities and SCs are part of traditional Congress votebase and the party feels it would help its political cause.

The new state might also be called ‘Hyderabad state’. It will include the ten districts comprising Telangana - Hyderabad, Adilabad, Khammam, Karimnagar, Mahbubnagar, Medak, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Rangareddy, Warangal - and possibly two districts from the Rayalaseema region. Seeing the Congress switch gears on the Telangana issue quite suddenly, leaving it with no room to milk it to further its own political ambitions, the BJP went on a statement-giving spree. BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, in what seemed like a last-ditch attempt to turn the Telangana tide to their own favour, declared that the BJP will anoint Telangana as a separate independent state within 24 hours of coming to power. Prakash Javadekar joined the chorus and said, “Telangana’s demand is a demand for justice. We want complete statehood of Telangana.” [embedalsosee] While Congress’ political math might have worked our fairly to their advantage in Telangana, the repercussions of the split will just add to the party’s troubles. With the GJM (Gorka Janmukti Morcha) already warning the UPA that they too will demand the separation of ‘Gorkhaland’ from West Bengal if Telangana is formed, the Congress has its task cut out following the split. Hindustan Times reports:

The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), which is spearheading the separate statehood campaign, has called a 72-hour strike from Monday… The move on Telangana has also reignited the long-standing demand for carving out Bodoland from Assam.

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However, the leaders who spearheaded the Telangana movement aren’t too happy about the Congress hijacking their agenda and have expressed their discontent at both the sudden acceleration in the government’s process to split Andhra Pradesh and the specifics of the split. Telangana Joint Action Committee convenor said in an interview to The Economic Times that the new state, if it includes two districts of Rayalaseema, will create more problems and cultural and political clashes will keep stalking the region. He said: “The 10 districts of Telangana are geographically contiguous and culturally similar - they have a common past and political history giving them a sense of identity.” K Chandrasekhar Rao, the president of TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samiti) too is miffed at the Congress going ahead with the procedure to split Andhra Pradesh leaving him out in the cold. In fact, The Hindu reports that though the Rayala-Telangana idea was first suggested by Rao, he seems to abandoned the idea immediately after the Congress adopted it. According to The Hindu: “Mr. Rao on Sunday went into a huddle with Telangana joint action committee chairman M. Kodandaram and other leaders at the former’s residence. The meeting discussed an agitation over the proposal starting with a dharna at Indira Park here on August 1.” The pioneers of the Telangana movement, thus, have a new issue at hand - making sure that the UPA is bullied into forming Telangana without including two districts from Rayalaseema.