At the end of the week-long confusion over the Centre’s unconfirmed move to carve out Rayala-Telangana that includes Kurnool, Anantapur and 10 districts of Telangana, it has ultimately turned out to be an attempt by the Congress to test political waters.
The Centre never publicly acknowledged that it was mulling Rayala-Telangana which figured briefly in the Justice Srikrishna Committee report and found favour with leaders like MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi and former Minister J.C. Diwakar Reddy. It was, however, relegated to the backseat subsequently.
It bounced back to the centre-stage and triggered intense political activity even as the Group of Ministers (GoM) on bifurcation headed by S.K. Shinde commenced consultations with leaders. This followed searching questions posed to Deputy Chief Minister C. Damodar Rajanarsimha and former PCC president D. Srinivas and other Telangana leaders about the viability and acceptance of such a proposal.
It was Mr. Rajanarasimha who let the cat out of the bag after his meeting with AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh at New Delhi.
Union Minister Kotla Suryaprakash Reddy went a step ahead and submitted a representation to the GoM about the resolutions passed by hundreds of gram panchayats in favour of Rayala-Telangana State.
Leaders evasiveHowever, the Central leaders remained evasive on the issue. “I will neither support nor rule out discussions on Rayala-Telangana,” was how Mr. Digvijay Singh reacted.
With the prospects of Rayala-Telangana remaining alive after the GoM completed its exercise, the TRS made its intentions to fight it out with the Congress against reneging on its promise of Telangana with 10 districts.
Good responseTrue to its claim, there was impressive response to its call for rallies and demonstrations and the bandh observed on Thursday too was successful.
The Telangana political joint action committee on its part intensified lobbying with the central leaders for their support for Telangana as promised earlier.
The Congress, however, reversed its move after Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram held discussions with Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj. Another Union Minister Jairam Ramesh consulted senior leader M. Venkaiah Naidu for BJP’s views on the issue.
