Political activity reached a crescendo on Sunday with parties opposed to bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh reaching out to opposition parties to mobilise support to at least have the Telangana Bill “kept in abeyance.” The Centre, however, appeared determined to push it through before the Lok Sabha session ends this week.
While the BJP stuck to its stand of favouring the Bill, but only if the concerns of Seemandhra people were addressed, the principal opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh, the YSR-CP and the Telugu Desam Party, intensified efforts to mobilise support against the law.
TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu met the BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to discuss the issue.
“What happened in Parliament on Thursday was unfortunate. We condemn it. But we cannot accept government’s claim that the Telangana Bill has been tabled in Parliament. There was trouble in the House. Opposition cannot accept it,” CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said after meeting YSR Congress leader Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy in New Delhi.
(On Thursday, Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj complained that the Bill was on the agenda circulated.)
Mr. Naidu, who spoke to the press in Delhi, was in favour of a national debate, arguing that the Bill should at least be kept in abeyance until consensus was achieved among different stakeholders in Andhra Pradesh.
