President spends a busy day lending a ear to all

HYDERABAD: Normally Sunday means no work, even for those in high places. However, President Pranab Mukherjee had been a busy man the whole day with a stream of 'political visitors' meeting him one after another.

As his 10-day southern sojourn is drawing to a close, politicos on either side of the regional divide made a beeline to meet the Head of the State to present their arguments for and against bifurcation.

Apart from deputy speaker Mallu Batti Vikramarka, minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah, former minister P Shankar Rao, and Congress MPs from Seemandhra and Telangana called on the President separately. TDP Telangana leaders and BJP Seemandhra politicos followed suit.

Though nobody knows what transpired in the meetings, after calling on the President, every leader tried to give the impression that Pranab Mukherjee was sympathetic to their demand on bifurcation.

The day begun with deputy speaker Vikramarka calling on the President at Rashtrapati Nilayam at Bollaram here. Later, Congress veteran P Shankar Rao met him along with his family. This was followed by a visit by Ponnala Lakshmaiah.

Lakshmaiah claimed that he had pleaded with the President not to extend the deadline for Assembly to return the T-Bill.

Thereafter, five rebel MPs of the Congress from Seemandhra--Vundavalli Arun Kumar, Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, Lagadapati Rajagopal, Sabbam Hari and GV Harsha Kumar--met the President and submitted a two-page memorandum for keeping the state united.

Emerging from the meeting, the MPs said, 'We are hopeful that the ident would stall the T-process as he has full knowledge of what is happening. We him that it is not democratic to bring the T-Bill when the UPA government does not have sufficient majority in Parliament.'

Claiming that the UPA is continuing in the office by default, the MPs said they told the President that there were several errors in the Bill.

Afterwards, TDP Telangana Forum leaders headed by Nama Nageswara Rao and E Dayakara Rao called on the President.'We have urged him to make certain that Telangana gets statehood before the 2014 polls,' Dayakar Rao told Express.

Then, Congress MPs from Telangana, led by Ponnam Prabhakar, met Pranab and made a similar representation. Later, Lok Satta chief Jayaparakash Narayan called on Pranab followed by a BJP Seemandhra delegation, which requested him to keep the T-process on hold saying the T-Bill ignored the concerns of the people of Seemandhra.