Split wide open among Seemandhra leaders

HYDERABAD: As the process of state bifurcation is nearing the culmination point, the internal rift between the ministers from Seemandhra, who are split along the lines of upper castes and weaker sections, is gradually unfolding.

Since there is a strong view that division of Andhra Pradesh would pave way for downtrodden classes to go up in the political ladder, Seemandhra ministers, from weaker sections, have begun openly attacking chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy's camp, which is moving heaven and earth to stall the process of bifurcation.

Several Congress leaders cite the latest example of the absence of tribal welfare minister P Balaraju at Kiran's Rachchabanda programme in Chodavaram in Visakhapatnam district on Friday.

Though Balaraju claims that he did not attend the programme as he was not informed before hand, close aides of the minister divulge that the minister has skipped the meeting as he has been disapproving of the strident posture, being taken by his boss against the party leadership's T decision.

Being a lawmaker from STs, Balaraju, like his other colleagues from weaker sections such as Dokka Manikya Vara Prasada Rao and Kondru Murali Mohan, too is reportedly backing his party leadership's decision to divide the state as he feels that this development would facilitate the weaker sections too occupy seat of power.

Though he never threw his weight behind his party's T-decision publicly, the tribal welfare minister several times openly disagreed with the view of the chief minister that the Seemandhra Congress leaders should step up pressure on their high command to reverse its T-decision.

Instead, he wants to exert pressure on his party leadership to extract an attractive financial package for the residuary state of AP post-bifurcation.

Balaraju's first salvo at the chief minister was fired on Oct 30 when he had skipped Kiran Reddy's programme in Visakhapatnam district, held on the same day.

His second salvo was his recent objection to the efforts of his colleague Ganta Srinivasa Rao, a Kiran loyalist, to persuade the BCCI to shift the venue of the one-day international match to be played in Visakhapatnam on November 24 as he feels that Samaikyandhra agitation is again gaining momentum.

In fact, ever since the Congress Working Committee decided to bifurcate AP, Union ministers, state ministers and Congress MPs have been split along caste lines.

Ministers from upper castes particularly Kammas and Reddys, who are alternatively enjoying power in the United AP, are bitterly opposing division of the state whereas their counterparts from weaker sections such as V Kishore Chandra Deo Panabaka Lakshmi and JD Seelam, and state ministers like Dokka Manikya Vara Prasada Rao, Kondru Murali Mohan and P Balaraju were backing it.

After Kiran Reddy's open revolt against the Centre's T-decision, Seemandhra ministers from weaker sections have become staunch loyalists of the Congress high command as they feel that bifurcation of AP would benefit them.