Telangana joint action panel splits, TRS isolated

The Congress plan to divide and rule a united Andhra Pradesh, it appears, is succeeding. With all 35 legislators of the main opposition, the TDP, resigning from the all-party joint action committee (JAC) on Tuesday, the political movement for the formation of Telangana has all but fizzled out. The Congress legislators from the region had disassociated themselves from JAC on Monday itself, and with the latest TDP move, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has been isolated.An Osmania University professor said, “The Congress had been working to isolate K Chandrasekhara Rao [TRS chief]. They did not want KCR to emerge a hero. TDP was caught in between.”JAC was formed with representatives from the Congress, TDP, TRS and other groups and a non-political chairman in Osmania University professor Kodandaram. It was strong till recently when TRS proposed mass resignations by elected representatives in Telangana to create a constitutional crisis in Andhra. All 10 TRS legislators, three from the Congress and one from BJP resigned, but the assembly speaker accepted only the TRS and BJP resignations. This led to the TDP MLAs arguing that unless all Congress legislators resigned, the move won’t be effective.By Monday night, the remaining Congress representatives on JAC declared they would not resign. “We are convinced the Centre and the party high command are engaged in the process of carving out the state [Telangana]. There is no reason to quit when statehood is certain,” P Prabhakar, convener of the MPs’ forum, said.