With controversy over Telangana deepening, 16 Andhra Pradesh ministers from the region have sought an "urgent" audience with Congress President Sonia Gandhi saying any delay will be detrimental to the party and there was "no option" to a separate Telangana.
"NCP president Sharad Pawar, Loktantrik Janata Dal president Sharad Yadav, DMK chief MK Stalin, Bihar's former deputy chief minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, SP president Akhilesh Yadav, BSP chief Mayawati and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal among other opposition leaders will attend the oath-taking ceremony in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh on December 17," said well-placed sources.
A bandh called by the YSR Congress, Telugu Desam Party and other anti-Telangana political parties is being observed in Seemandhra region of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday to protest against the passage of the AP Reorganisation Bill-2013 in the Lok Sabha.
Of the 16 assembly seats in Telangana, which went to the bypolls because of en masse resignation of the TRS members, TRS could retain only seven seats. Similarly of the four Lok Sabha seats, which TRS resigned from last year, the party could retain only two and other two were shared by the Congress and the TDP. The ruling Congress party wrested five and the TDP bagged four assembly seats earlier held by the TRS.
While the United Progressive Alliance government is preparing to ignore the protests from anti-Telangana members of Parliament and push through the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill in Parliament on Tuesday, the Congress' grim internal assessment is that the move may not pay the requisite electoral dividends which it had originally hoped for, says Anita Katyal
Legislators from the Andhra-Seema belt say that Kiran Kumar Reddy ready knew about the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh since December. Vicky Nanjappa reports
On its own or with allies the Congress has a strong presence in states that account for a total of 253 LS seats, or 20 short of the magic figure of 272 required to form a government at the Centre. So what is Mamata Banerjee talking about, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and other senior party leaders, including All India Congress Committee general secretary Avinash Pande and spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, also moved to Jaisalmer along with the MLAs in five chartered flights.
Meanwhile, the AP CM said that the TDP is ready to bring no-trust motion against Centre as last resort.
Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh on Thursday. No other member of his cabinet took the oath as he will finalise his team after meeting party president Sonia Gandhi and other central ministers.
Per capita income in the state has consistently been below the national average for at least 24 years. However, it has narrowed the gap with the all-India level in recent years.
A ministerial panel looking into the reasons for the Congress' poor performance at the recent bypolls on Wednesday discussed ways to effectively publicise the welfare schemes being implemented by the Andhra Pradesh government to reach out to the masses.
Hitting out at the Congress rule in Andhra Pradesh for its poor response to providing relief to rain-hit farmers, former Congress Member of Parliament Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday said the government would have to bid goodbye to power in the state if it neglected farmers."At least now, this government should open its eyes and rectify its mistakes. If it fails to become farmer-friendly, then I warn that the time has arrived for this government to go," he said.
The Congress' top leadership decided to rally firmly behind the Kiran Kumar Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh as the party prepares to face the Telangana issue after an official committee submits its report on the statehood issue by this month-end.
The victory in the assembly elections, the first in Telangana after its formation in June 2014, might well act as a springboard for the leader, often accused of perpetuating family rule and promoting nepotism, to realise his ambition of playing a greater role in national politics.
The Andhra Pradesh high court on Thursday dismissed the regular bail petition of YSR Congress chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy in connection with an alleged disproportionate assets case involving him. The AP high court had on December 24 dismissed the statutory bail plea of Jagan.
Congress General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad on Thursday met several party leaders in Hyderabad, including some ministers of N Kiran Kumar Reddy government who were understood to have voiced their displeasure about the style of function of the chief minister.
Andhra Pradesh may go for a brief spell of President's rule with the Kiran Kumar Reddy government facing internal crisis with 25 to 30 MLAs planning to join YSR Congress headed by Jaganmohan Reddy.
In a clear message that the people of Telangana want a separate state, both the Congress and Telugu Desam Party were rejected by the electorate in the region, reports Mohammed Siddique
Chief Justice of AP High Court G S Singhvi administered the oath of office to the new governor at a simple ceremony at Raj Bhavan.
...close to the 2024 general election. The BJP calling the Congress 'seasonal Hindu' is as laughable as the saffron party sparing itself the title of 'seasonal extreme Hindu.'
How else should one describe its election campaigns of the past years?
It was typically obsessive religion and personality cult with economic development for fig leaf, asserts Shyam G Menon.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Tuesday left for Delhi, where he is expected to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and possibly discuss an expansion of his cabinet and Telangana, among other issues. There has been speculation that the chief minister would induct only two legislators of erstwhile Praja Rajyam Party into his cabinet. It is speculated that the cabinet re-jig may take place anytime between January 21 and 28.
After Governor of Andhra Pradesh ESL Narasimhan emerged from a 45-minute meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, a source indicated that they both had held key discussions on the current political situation in the state.
According to the officials, the funds to the Congress were sent by Hyderabad-based Megha Infrastructure and Engineering.
Andhra Pradesh Health Minister Kondru Murali Mohan and Forest Minister Satrucharla Vijayarama Raju on Monday resigned from their posts protesting the proposed bifurcation of the state.
On one hand, South Indian states have been complaining about denial of a proportionate portion of the sharable funds from the Centre, based on population. On the other hand, they stand to lose Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seats that again are based on population, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Andhra Pradesh minister for information technology Komatireddy Venkatreddy told mediapersons in Hyderabad that he had not received the notice from the All India Congress Committee and will respond to it when he receives it.
Andhra Pradesh Roads and Buildings Minister Dharmana Prasada Rao resigned late on Tuesday night, a day after CBI named him as an accused in the disproportionate assets case against YSR Congress leader Jaganmohan Reddy.
The tumult in the ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh in the aftermath of the rout in the assembly bypolls continued on Friday, with some party leaders blaming Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy for the poor showing.
Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy, who will be listed in the history as the last chief minister of an "undivided" Andhra Pradesh, is likely to drop his plans to float a new political party.
The strong Bharatiya Janata Party-Telugu Desam Party combine in Seema-Andhra could upset the calculations of the YSR Congress in the region, but the TDP's biggest problem is rebellion from within. Vicky Nanjappa reports
In the first signs of political trouble in Andhra Pradesh's ruling Congress party, the state minister for women and child welfare Konda Surekha tendered her resignation to the state governor ND Tiwari on Thursday evening.
Amit Shah believes Bandi Sanjay Kumar is 'single-handedly' capable of unseating the TRS government in the December 2023 assembly election and there is no need for the BJP's central leaders to jump into the Telangana scene.
Triggering a virtual rebellion against Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, state Health Minister D L Ravindra Reddy on Thursday sent his resignation to Congress president Sonia Gandhi "taking moral responsibility" for the party's poor show in the by-elections.
Congress Member of Parliament L Rajagopal, who had threatened to go on an indefinite hunger strike to oppose division of Andhra Pradesh, began his fast in Vijaywada on Tuesday.
The BJP has dropped C T Ravi, a leader from Karnataka, Dilip Saikia, a Lok Sabha MP from Assam, as its general secretaries, and Vinod Sonkar, Harish Dwivedi, both Lok Sabha MPs from Uttar Pradesh, and Sunil Deodhar as secretaries.
Counting of votes in the crucial by-polls held in Andhra Pradesh for one Lok Sabha constituency and 18 Assembly seats began today amid tight security arrangements.
Experts recommend awaiting the findings of the 2021 Census, which is yet to be conducted, before introducing population control policies.