Congress on sticky wicket

YSRC sitting pretty in Seemandhra after Congress’ decision in favour of Telangana

Congress leaders are deeply worried as the ground under their feet is completely shifting in the Seemandhra region caused by its sudden announcement to divide the State on July 31.

The spontaneous protests rocking the 13 districts threaten to erode the party’s traditional vote base as people are viewing Congress president Sonia Gandhi as the main architect of bifurcation. The meek protests by Seemandhra Union Ministers, MPs and legislators against division have only infuriated them further.

The tide against the Congress is so strong that a delegation of Seemandhra Ministers and MLAs told Antony Committee that the party would be wiped out in the region unless remedial measures are taken. Endowment Minister C. Ramachandraiah went on record to say the decision would sound death knell for the Congress while others cited findings of a survey predicting a total rout in the Assembly elections. Independent surveys also gave no more than two to five Lok Sabha seats to the Congress.

This vacuum is being filled by the YSR Congress which quickly dumped its earlier stand on Telangana and asked party MLAs to resign their seats protesting unilateral announcement on bifurcation.

At its recent plenary meet at Idupulapaya, the YSRC has said it respected the Telangana sentiment and wanted the Congress to take a decision. Subsequently, it said a decision on bifurcation should be in the interests of all the three regions.

All this gave the YSRC a head-start over the Telugu Desam which was slow to react to the CWC’s decision and said the decision should be in the interests of all the three regions. The party had originally favoured division in its memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee and even passed a resolution to this effect at its Mahanadu.

APCC president Botcha Satyanarayana pointed out this dichotomy at a press conference on Tuesday when he said there was no merit in their contention that they were not consulted before announcement of bifurcation.

However, there is no denying the fact that the YSRC is sitting pretty in Seemandhra after the CWC’s decision.

Though its showing in the panchayat elections was below par compared to that of the TDP, it managed to wrest the initiative by taking an aggressive stand in support of united AP.

The TDP leaders are still in two minds. On one hand, their MPs are fighting against bifurcation in Parliament while their party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu has claimed that bifurcation process may not be delayed further.

Their predicament is whether to join the agitation or face people’s wrath.

Amid the growing anger against the Congress, some of its MLAs have started quitting the party and joining the YSRC. In the last three days alone, four MLAs have bid adieu to the party. Former Minister Gade Venkat Reddy recently said, “There is no chance of the party surviving in the region after the decision.”