Telagnana Bill takes LS route - TeluguPeople.com News

Hyderabad: Amidst continued uncertainty and suspense, the much-delayed AP Reorganization Bill for formation of Telangana State is likely to be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, if everything goes according to the plan chalked out by the UPA government.

The Congress Core Committee, which met in the afternoon, focused mainly on the strategy to ensure passage of the Telangana bill in Parliament. Sources indicated that Ahmed Patel, the political adviser to the party president Sonia Gandhi, has been authorized to ensure that the BJP does not go back on its commitment.

Along with Jairam Ramesh and Digvijay Singh, Patel has been handling negotiations with the principle opposition party whose support has become crucial for passage of the legislation.

Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde met Speaker Meira Kumar soon after the meeting. The meeting is reported to have focused on the procedures in the run-up to the introduction of the Bill.

The Core Committee meeting, chaired by Sonia Gandhi, decided that the bill should be introduced at any cost on Thursday. After discussing at length the pros and cons surrounding its introduction, the highest decision making body of the Congress is understood to have felt that come what may the bill cannot be delayed any longer and the process of formation a new Telangana state has to be completed at the earliest by ensuring the passage of the bill during the current session itself.

As per the earlier plan, the bill was to have been introduced in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. However this backfired with Vice-President and Chairman of the Upper House Hamid Ansari seeking certain clarifications before allowing the bill to be introduced, to avoid any legal hurdles later.

This has forced the Ministry of Home Affairs to send the bill back to Rashtrapathi Bhavan to seek the permission of President Pranab Mukherjee for introducing it now in the Lok Sabha.

Meanwhile, the logjam over the T Bill continued to persist in both the Houses of parliament which witnessed noisy scenes forcing their adjournments for the day.

Apart from the defiant posture of its own party leaders from Seemandhra region, including the Chief Minister, some Union Ministers and MPs, the Congress has been facing challenge from BJP which has been shifting the goalposts and imposing new conditions for extending support to the bill.

The BJP, which has been asserting that it was in favour of smaller states and supported the cause of a separate Telangana State, has been dithering on some pretext or the other.

First, the party leaders insisted that they would extend support to the passage of the bill in the Parliament provided the Congress reined in its rebel members and put an end to the disruption of the Parliament. If there is calm and order during the proceedings, then the party would extend its support, the Congress was informed.

With general elections round the corner and the popularity graph of the Congress drastically sliding down, the BJP appears not too keen on allowing the Congress to take all the credit for formation of Telangana state.

Hence, the party began the cat and mouse game with the ruling party. The latest salvo was fired by the senior BJP leader LK Advani when he categorically told a delegation of Telangana TDP leaders that the party would not extend support to the Bill as it is full of legal glitches and not formulated in conformity with the legal and constitutional provisions.

This undoubtedly has dealt a big blow to the Congress.Thus, in order to show that the question of ensuring the passage of the Telangana Bill was its top priority, the Congress leadership decided to axe the rebel Seemandhra MPs. The MPs were expelled from the party on disciplinary grounds for moving a no confidence motion against the UPA government.

The action seemed intended to tell the BJP leadership that the Congress was keen on passage of the bill. The Congress leadership also stepped up efforts to enlist support of the BJP by planning a lunch diplomacy.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has invited top BJP leaders for lunch where he is expected to seek the support and cooperation for the Telangana Bill passage. Other senor leaders have also commenced consultations to get the BJP on board.

Will the BJP allow the Congress to have the cake and eat it too is a big question now.It is also pertinent to note that Congress is also faced with another uncertainty regarding the proposed merger of TRS with it.

The TRS President K. Chandrashekar Rao is not the one to fall flat so easily to Congress overtures and he has been playing his own dilly dallying game.