Chaos in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly, arising out of the political uncertainty in the State over the Telangana issue, forced the Rosaiah government to opt for adjournment of the winter session of the Assembly and the Council.
The day also saw the arrest of Congress MP from Vijayawada Lagadapati Rajagopal, leading to flaring of passions in the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.
High drama was witnessed when Mr. Rajagopal, who had threatened to undertake an indefinite fast here, was taken into custody by police immediately after he landed at the Shamshabad international airport, leading to bandhs, hunger strikes and protests in the non-Telangana regions. He was once again detained in the evening after he staged a sit-in along with 15 Congress MLAs and one of the Praja Rajyam at the Lal Bahadur Stadium.
A virtual split in the major political parties along regional lines over the Centre's decision to initiate the process for formation of Telangana affected the functioning of the Assembly for the sixth day.
Attendance was thin as 139 MLAs had submitted their resignation letters to Speaker N. Kiran Kumar Reddy. Those who turned up shouted slogans, in favour of either a separate Telangana or a unified State depending upon the region they belonged to. Following this, Revenue Minister D. Prasada Rao moved a motion for adjourning the House sine die, nine days ahead of schedule.
Another casualty of the developments was the Telugu Desam Party, whose MLAs from Telangana demanded a separate committee for their region, while those from the other regions propose to press the Speaker on Tuesday to accept their resignations.
The Congress remained a divided house not only along regional lines. Its MLAs from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema appeared to differ over pushing for a harder line or for waiting for the central leadership to act.
Those from Telangana decided to organise "a thanksgiving" meeting on December 16 and to mobilise lakhs of people for a rally here later.
In Vijayawada, the Joint Action Committee (JAC), formed to fight against bifurcation, has decided to lay siege to National Highway-9 for an hour on Tuesday after withdrawing its bandh call.
