Congress firm on reorganisation commission to beat Mayawati's plan

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati’s pre-poll gambit to split the state into four has really got the Congress work overtime. After dilly-dallying for a few days, the party has now firmed up its position that a second states reorganisation commission is the only way out.

Party spokesperson Rashid Alvi asserted that complex issues that pertain to more than one state can be handled only by a state organisation commission (SRC). “It is not a simple matter, and it cannot be decided merely through an announcement. But we want that all such demands from different parts of the country should be looked into by this commission,” he said.

Though this view has been expressed by other party leaders, too, the party’s official position has been akin to wait and watch. Now it has backed the second SRC as the only way forward on this issue.

However, Alvi clarified that the party did not want the Telangana issue to be mixed-up with the second SRC. “The demand for a separate Telangana to be carved out from Andhra Pradesh has been pending for quite a long time and our general secretary is looking into it separately. This has nothing to
do with the second SRC,” he added.

But the party still does not have any clarity on two significant aspects related to this proposal from Mayawati to split Uttar Pradesh into four. It has yet to firm-up the position its legislators will take in the state assembly when the resolution comes up for discussion, nor does it have any clarity on the timing of setting up the second SRC.