JC Diwakar Reddy hints at `political sanyasa'

Hyderabad: The state is passing through a piquant political situation. While the TDP and YSRCP presidents are holding competitive indefinite fasts, the Congress party leaders having come to the conclusion that the game was over and are busy working out their strategies to save their political future.

Some are preparing to quit Congress and join the YSRCP or TDP. The YSRCP president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy also confirmed this saying that many leaders from other parties would soon join the party since his party has a strong base in the Coastal and Rayalaseema region.

He said he was confident that they would win about 25 Lok Sabha seats and will have a major role to play in national politics.

On the other hand, the TDP feels that the indefinite fast by Naidu in New Delhi will attract the attention of the national parties and that would force the Congress to announce details of what it proposes to do for the Seemandhra region. This would help the party to consolidate its position in that region.

Congress leaders like J C Diwakar Reddy seek give the impression of getting ready to retire from active politics. Amidst such a scenario, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy continues to adopt public posture that the state will remain united till 2014.

Interestingly, some ministers who are in close touch with him claim that he still maintains that once the State Assembly rejects the resolution on separate Telangana, the President would not give his consent for bifurcation.

According to leaders like Diwakar Reddy, there is still a flicker of hope that the T bill will not be passed in the Parliament. In an informal chat with media, Diwakar Reddy criticized the Centre for behaving as if they were 'deaf, dumb and blind'.

Their refusal to recognize the aspirations of the people of Seemandhra region had caused anguish for people like him. He said his family has been with Congress party for generations and now it was painful to think that the time had come for him to quit the party. Reddy said he would retire from active politics.

Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao expressed concern over the attacks on the properties of PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana in Vizianagaram. He said the protests against Botcha started as the people there felt that he was not taking a firm stand against bifurcation without understanding the delicate situation he was in being the PCC president. The statements being made by leaders in Delhi were adding to the confusion, he said.