Seemandhra ministers lost steam, pin hopes on package

Hyderabad: The Seemandhra ministers are divided lot and doubts are being raised about the outcome of the proposed meeting of the Coordination committee of Seemandhra ministers, MLAs, MLCs and MPs to be held on Thursday.

With more and more leaders getting reconciled to the fact that there was nothing that they could do to stop the bifurcation process, they now want that the leaders from the region should work on the proposals to be submitted to the Group of Ministers to extract a good package.

The latest in the list of those who feel so is Tribal Welfare minister P Balaraju. He was among those who had strongly opposed the proposed di vision of the stat so far.

Speaking to media, the minis ter said that people of the Seemandhra region now have come to the conclusion that bifurcation was inevitable. If the leaders fail to rise to the occasion and still keep talking of their efforts to keep the state united it would amount to deceiving the people.

Raju said that he would soon go to Delhi and meet the Group of Ministers (GoM) and urge them to protect the rights of Seemandhra region while dividing the state.

Another minister Kondru Murali also said that as Congressmen they have to respect the decision of the high command. He said apart from TDP, YSRCP and CPI the Congress leaders had also assured the high command that they would abide by its decision.

He said though he respects the sentiments of the Seemandhra people he was of the firm opinion that the Dalits and other weaker sections would be benefitted under the Congress rule only, he said. Murali further said he would continue to be in the party and will abide by its decision.

Addressing mediapersons in Vijayawada, Union Minister Purandeswari said on Wednesday, that though she was a staunch integra tionist, as division of AP was certain henceforth she would fight for the interests of the people of Seemandhra. She felt that people of her region wanted decen tralisation of administration in the event of bifurcation in order to develop the region.

'We can protect the interests of Seemandhra by continuing in our posts. We will meet the GoM and suggest how the rights of Seemandhra can be protected during bifurcation. We will also tell the GoM about the resources we need to develop our region,' she said.

Meanwhile, Sake Sailajanath, who is the convener of AP Congress Legislators' Forum, formulated the agenda of the meeting by holding confabulations with party veteran Gade Venkata Reddy at Con gress Legislature Party office here on Wednesday.

Speaking to media, Sailajanath said that all those who are now saying that the game was over should say so publicly by going to the people in the Seemandhra region.

Sailajanath made it clear they would not recognise the GoM. He said during the Thursday's meeting they would formulate a fresh action plan on how to exert pressure on their party high command to keep the state united.