Congress now appears coming closer to taking a final call on the vexed issue of carving out a Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh. As per the details trickling out of the party’s core group meeting held here on Friday, the leaders after discussing pros and cons seem to have principally given a go ahead, but left it to the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision making authority to take a final decision.
Leaders from Andhara Pradesh who attended the meeting at the prime minister Manmohan Singh’s official residence expressed optimism, saying the central leadership gave them a patient hearing, hinting that the CWC would now take a positive decision about Telangana. Sources said the CWC would be called by the end of this month.
The core group meeting headed by party president Sonia Gandhi was attended by prime minister, Rahul Gandhi, home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, defence minister AK Antony, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Kirankumar Reddy, PCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana and deputy chief minister Damodar Rajanarasimha and the party general secretary Digvijay Singh.
Emerging out of the meeting, Digvijay Sigh said after hearing all sides, the CWC will take a decision. He said the party has held widest consultations with all political parties and leaders. Singh, who is incharge of party’s affairs in Andhra Pradesh, said the core group took stock of all these consultations. Over last fortnight he has reportedly contacted Telengana Sangarash Samiti (TRS) and the mother of YSR Congress’ jailed leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy. Congress sources say, he has secured an assurance from the TRS leaders that they would merge their party in Congress after a decision on Telengana.
In order to revive party’s dwindling fortunes in the state, Congress is on one hand is trying to rope in TRS, and in the rest of the AP, it hopes to build an alliance with the YSR Congress.
At the core group meeting, state leaders also gave presentations on the political strategy for the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls next year. Insiders said Rahul Gandhi during their presentations raised queries wanting to know about the political fallout of the creation of Telengana and its impact on party’s performance in the coming elections. Later, all Andhra leaders including the chief minister were told to leave the room. The six central leaders who stayed behind held talks for about 45 minutes, before conveying the state leaders waiting outside that the matter has been referred to the CWC.
Even though Telagana state is carved out from a bunch of 10 districts the status of Hyderabad is appearing a big bone of contention. Insiders say, the party was also discussing dividing the state equally with 147 assembly and 21 Lok Sabha seats on each side. This means the Rayalseema districts added to Telangana would limit the influence of the TRS leaders. The Rayalseema districts added to the Telangana would account for four Lok Sabha and 28 assembly seats.
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