Keen to make the point that it may be down but not out, the Congress is making efforts to upset the applecart of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu by opposing his moves to get the number of the Assembly seats increased from the present 175 to 225 and ensure that all those MLAs who have switched over to the Telugu Desam party get tickets in the 2019 Assembly elections.
Instead of directly opposing the Constitutional Amendment Bill (facilitating the increase in the number) when it comes up before the Rajya Sabha, the Congreess strategy is to offer a conditional support and link it to Andhra Pradesh interests. “The Congress will simply ask the NDA to grant Special Category Status, Railway Zone for Visakhapatnam, compensate for the revenue deficit and fulfil other promises before seeking the party’s support for the Bill,” N. Raghuveera Reddy, president of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee, told The Hindu over telephone.
Mr. Reddy led a delegation to AICC Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday and convinced him to adopt this strategy that has the potential of embarrassing the BJP and both Mr. Naidu and Telangana Chief Minisster K. Chandrasekhara Rao. Mr. Reddy said Mr. Gandhi not only liked the idea but also promptly called senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad to mobilise support from other Opposition parties.
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“We have now got a chance to hit at both Mr. Naidu and Mr. Chandrasekhara Rao politically. They may get the Bill cleared in the Lok Sabha but let us see how they will get it passed by the Rajya Sabha where they don’t have the required two-thirds majority. Setting aside State interests, both of them have encouraged defections and lobbied hard with the Centre for raising the strength of their respective Assemblies,” Mr. Reddy said.
In both the States, there have been large scale defections, from the YSRCP to the Telugu Desam in Andhra Pradesh and from the Telugu Desam/Congress to the TRS in Telangana apparently with the subtle understanding that they would be accommodated in the same or neighbouring Assembly constituencies in the 2019 Assembly elections. For those who took the bait, it was a win-win situation with some of them even getting Cabinet berths. It was part of a well-thought out political strategy by the two ruling parties to not only strengthen themselves but also weaken the Opposition.
The lobbying with the Centre was unusually intense and it was just about to come to fruition. Union Ministers from Andhra Pradesh confirmed that the Bill had been cleared by the Law and the Home Ministries. Mr. Naidu himself went on record during a recent meeting of party MPs that the Bill was ready and that it could come up in the monsoon session of the Parliament itself. He did not anticipate any trouble as delimitation and the increase in the seats was promised in the AP Reorganisation Act and all that the Centre was doing was implement it.
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On their part, the Telugu Desam leaders feel the Congress strategy may boomerang as the onus of implementing the bifurcation law was with it first and then with the BJP. “If it opposes, it will be another betrayal by the Congress after letting down the people of the State through unscientific bifurcation,” said AP Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu.