Seemandhra leaders pin hopes on President

NEW DELHI: Seemandhra ministers in the UPA government at the Centre are a dejected lot now, resigned to their fate and with no more strength to fight the high command's move to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh.

They have almost come to the conclusion that they won't be able to stop the central government from enacting a law in this regard in the winter session of Parliament.

Their only hope now seems to be President Pranab Mukherjee who could keep the process of bifurcation in abeyance. Their only chance of surviving the 2014 general election is in delaying the creation of Telangana and praying that the next government does not carry on with the present government's policy.

Pranab Mukherjee, since his stint in the UPA-1 government as defence minister, is said to have been being opposed to any partition of Andhra Pradesh. He had even pulled up Congress leaders from Telangana for raking up the issue on a number of occasions.

Incidentally, the decision to initiate the process of creation of separate Telangana was taken on December 9, 2009 in his absence and, consequently, the decision had to be altered later.

Seemandhra Union ministers are of the opinion that the recent CWC resolution was passed in favour of creation of Telangana since Pranab Mukherjee is out of the political arena.

Though they do not expect him to return the AP Reorganisation Bill, 2013 to the council of ministers but are hoping that the President may sit on the file without giving any priority to the bill.

Constitutionally, there is no time limit for the President to act on such bills and can take his own time in clearing the file. One senior minister from Seemandhra is planning to seek an appointment with the President once the bill is sent to Rashtrapati Bhavan by prime minister Manmnohan Singh.

'We are not sure what the President will do but we hope that he may not rush through the bill and question the government on the urgency at the fag end of its term,' said a minister.

Meanwhile, rumours that the AP Reorganisation Bill may not be passed in the winter session of Parliament have come as a breather for Seemandhra ministers.

After the meeting of the Congress core group, parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath wondered if Telangana bill would be passed in the winter session. Though Kamal Nath was not a member of the core group, he was invited specially to discuss the permutations and combinations for getting support for the Telangana bill in Parliament.

The winter session of Parliament will be held from December 5 to 20 with 12 sittings. Sources said the government was also exploring the possibility of convening a special session in the second week of January or to extend the winter session by a few days to ensure passage of the bill so that the new state of Telangana could be created much before the general election.

While the central government is working on a war-footing to complete the bifurcation process, Seemandhra ministers are watering down their demands with the same speed. First they talked of keeping the state united.

When they came to know that the decision was being implemented, they raised the issue of Hyderabad as Union Territory (UT). After told in categorical terms that it was not possible, now they are raising the bogey of Rayala Telangana - to merge two districts of Rayalaseema region, Anantapur and Kurnool, in Telangana state. Congress leaders from Telangana region have already rejected the proposal.

With nothing coming in their favour, they are now planning to return to normal ministerial work. Human resource development minister MM Pallam Raju said, 'I have decided that I should not let the ministry's work suffer while the minister suffers.'