Seema Andhra leaders protest T committee

The Union home minister, Mr P. Chidambaram’s announcement of a committee on Telangana has kicked up a furore among Seema-Andhra leaders. The Telugu Desam leaders from the region have opposed the proposal saying it is a conspiracy hatched by a “Tamilian and Kannadiga” (the home minister, Mr P. Chidambaram of Tamil Nadu and the Union law minister, Mr Veerappa Moily of Karnataka) to bifurcate the state.

They demanded that the Centre drop the move or face the wrath of people from both the regions. They blamed Mr Chidambaram’s views in his book A view from the outside-why good economics works for everyone which states that there was a strong case for creation of Vidarbha in Maharashtra and Telangana in Andhra Pradesh besides further division of UP and Bihar.

Seema-Andhra TD leaders, Mr D. Narendra, Mr Devineni Umamaheshwara Rao, Mr K.E. Prabhakar and others met at the TD Legislature party and warned of serious consequences if the Centre went ahead with the committee to bifurcate Telangana without taking the views of other regions.

The TD MLAs from Andhra and Rayalaseema said the “committee” was unconstitutional since the Congress core committee had no right to constitute such a body. Samaikya Andhra students’ JAC convened a meeting in Anantapur to chalk out an action plan in the wake of Centre’s attempt to bifurcate AP. The TD Samaikya Andhra leaders will attend the meeting.

In another development, Telangana TD said they prefer to wait and watch the constitution of the committee before deciding on the course of agitation. “There should be a uniform national policy on bifurcation of states. The Congress is behaving like a regional party,” Mr D. Narendra said.