For Congress, it's sizzling in Andhra Pradesh

For the Congress party in Andhra Pradesh, two things have turned hot much ahead of the peaking of summer: the Telangana issue and the power situation. The Congress and Telugu Desam Party blame each other for the power crisis while the common man suffers. Power bills are already high while the power-cut is becoming unbearable. To compound the government's woes, Left parties announced support to Telugu Desam's agitation plans on the issue while the Telangana Rashtra Samiti is supporting Left parties. As a result of this rare show of solidarity, the government will face a series of agitations from April 1. Surely, the issue will continue to haunt the Congress till the elections, scheduled for 2014, and can be exploited to their advantage by rivals, hurting the party's electoral prospects.

In order not to burden the consumer further, the government may not, for the time being, venture into another tariff hike. Nevertheless, the realisation seems to have dawned that the consumer has to endure the suffering due to short supply. At a programme at Nalgonda, the Chief Minister announced that an additional 3,000 MW of power would be available by November even if the monsoon was not up to the expectations. He made this remark by way of assuring people that the State would tide over the power crisis!

The statehood issue has become the headache, solely, of the Congress central leadership; concerned only with not lagging behind Telangana protagonists in public perception in demanding Telangana, Congress leaders of the region are giving ultimatums to the party now and then. Other than this, they are not doing a wee bit to help the party leadership arrive at a widely acceptable solution. Some time ago, Congress MP Lagadapati Rajagopal challenged K Chandrasekhara Rao of the TRS to introduce a resolution for a separate Telangana, saying it would surely be defeated. Why not Telangana Congress leaders, if so sure of public support to the statehood demand, do something to crystallise and mould public opinion on the issue?

Considering the shrillness of pro- and anti-bifurcation demands that followed P. Chidambaram's statement on Telangana, the Congress has begun to speak only of those things that attract no criticism but are seen to enjoy wide acceptability, if not consensus, and are in the realm of immediate feasibility. The other day, disputing a remark by Mr Harish Rao of the TRS, Mr Kiran Reddy said that even at the time of striking an alliance with the TRS for the 2004 elections, the Congress had agreed only to constitution of a second states reorganisation commission (SRC) to look into statehood demands (when Mr L K Advani was Home Minister in the NDA rule, Ms Sonia Gandhi had written to him seeking formation of a separate Telangana).

On March 29, the Chief Minister launched development works worth Rs 396 crore in Nalgonda district, which is part of Telangana. The same day, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, by promising financial aid to Uttar Pradesh, did placate Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav who was threatening to withdraw support to the UPA government at the Centre. It seems that, as regards Telangana, the Congress may well adopt this 'sops' course till the elections rather than going in for second SRC, given that time is in short supply for such a time-consuming process.