Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy will stage a protest at Shakti Sthal, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s Memorial in Delhi, marking the shift in the struggle for a unified State to the national capital, said Vijayawada Congress MP Lagadapati Rajagopal.
He told presspersons on the sidelines of a brainstorming session by the Samaikyandhra Gazetted Officers’ Forum here on Sunday that with the Parliament session starting from February 5, the scene would shift to Delhi. The efforts to stop bifurcation would start at Shakti Sthal, to remind the high command of Indira Gandhi’s historic statement in Parliament in 1972 that she stood firmly for an integrated State.
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The struggle to keep Andhra Pradesh united has reached a crucial stage, said Mr. Rajagopal and Machilipatnam MP Konakalla Narayana (Telugu Desam). “Our speed in Parliament will depend upon your speed and intensity,” Mr. Rajagopal said, adding that if and when the AP State Reorganisation Bill was taken forward, it would be introduced in Parliament on February 14. “With February 15 and 16 being holidays, the effective time that the Congress has to push the Bill is only five days till February 21,” he added. “That injustice was perpetrated against Telugu-speaking people in AP has been realised by political leadership at the national-level. They have understood that bifurcation was sought only for political ends. I personally believe that the Bill will not reach Parliament but even then, 9,072 amendments are required,” Mr. Narayana said.
Legal expert Kanakamedala Ravinder said even if the expectations of Samaikyandhra activists went wrong at different levels, they were all set to move the Supreme Court. “We have done our best and only political will and force will work to keep AP united,” said Forum president A.V. Patel, adding that the exercise of personally contacting every MP and Central Minister hailing from the State had begun.
“We will have a similar brainstorming session at Tirupati on February 3 and another meeting at New Delhi on February 10, with as many leaders as we can get from other political parties,” he said.
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