Legislators from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions did not allow the Andhra Pradesh assembly to transact business when the winter session resumed on Friday as they remained firm on their demand that the Centre drop the move to bifurcate the state.
Raising the pitch of his attack on Centre, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy today challenged it to place the AP Reorganisation Bill 2013 in Parliament in the same form it was referred to the state Legislature.
The ordinance over the Polavaram irrigation project triggered the first protest in the 16th Lok Sabha with Telangana Rashtra Samiti members storming the Well against the measure.
His announcement came amid indications that the TDP, which recently pulled out its ministers from the Narendra Modi government, was toying with the idea of quitting the NDA.
Andhra leaders are readying for a stormy session over Telangana tomorrow. Vicky Nanjappa reports
Biju Janata Dal members had staged a walk-out while NDA ally Shiv Sena did not participate in the voting.
Noisy protests disrupted the both houses of the Parliament on the first day of the second part of the budget session
As many as 40 pro-Telangana students were on Tuesday taken into preventive custody in different parts of the city even as tension prevailed on the Osmania University campus with the protesting students indulging in stone throwing on security forces.
'Modi's idea of India is to make it less liberal, less tolerant and a less accommodative of diversity.' 'We are headed, if Modi continues, to become an ill liberal democracy.' 'Modi is not Vajpayee. Vajpayee was fundamentally decent, tolerant and fair. He played by the rules of the game. Modi is a different story.'
The Union home minister said he firmly believed that Article 370 that gave the special status to Jammu and Kashmir should be removed as it was not beneficial to the country.
Attacking Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi without naming, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said that he should spell out his views on "substantial" issues as sentimental ones were of no consequence.
Hitting out at Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy for rejecting the AP Reorganisation Bill, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi on Thursday said the move cannot stop formation of Telangana.
The suspense over the controversial bill continues as the BJP insists that it was not introduced as Lok Sabha witnessed its stormiest proceedings ever.
Clarifies over the raging media controversy over its intent to exit
Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, a strong political stakeholder in Hyderabad, has expressed apprehensions that the central government was contemplating giving the city the status of an Union Territory while creating Telangana state and warned that the party will fight tooth and nail against any such move.
In his first interview after the announcement on Telangana, Jaipal Reddy spoke about the historical background of the movement, Narendra Modi and other issues.
Ministers from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, including Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, of Andhra Pradesh are likely to resign from their posts en masse as soon as the ongoing debate on the draft AP Reorganisation Bill-2013 concludes.
With reports suggesting a rift between the Congress and its ally Nationalist Congress Party, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday dubbed the United Progressive Alliance as a "sinking ship" which is being deserted by its allies.
The Telangana government on Saturday appeared on a collision course with the Centre after it refused to "honour or implement" the latter's directives with regard to special responsibility vested in the governor for maintenance of law and order in greater Hyderabad.
Leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley speaks on the debate on the Andhra Pradesh (Reorganisation) Bill, 2014
Fortune favours the brave and he has done well by taking risks and winning it all, says Aditi Phadnis.
Sheela Bhatt lists ten quick takeaways from the passage of the Telangana bill in the Lok Sabha.
The Bharatiya Janata Party might have a majority in the Lok Sabha but sarcasm and public humiliation of rivals may not be the way to assert this. In fact, it is a waste of time
Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday slammed Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao for dubbing as "fascist" the Centre's directives on special powers related to law and order in Hyderabad vested in Governor, and demanded immediate withdrawal of his comments.
State Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu also told reporters that TDP has decided to 'expose' the Centre on what it has done or not done to the state -- as promised in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 -- by putting out relevant facts and figures before the people.
While Rahul loyalists were keen that he be given the post, a leader known to be close to him said, "If he does not become the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, then he should quit politics."
Daggubati Purandeswari is the only Union minister to have joined the BJP this election. 'Everybody knows Dr Manmohan Singh is a man of great integrity and I consider it an honour to have worked with him,' Purandeswari, the BJP candidate from Rajampeta, Andhra Pradesh, tells A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com
Adopting an aggressive stance and seeking to push the Centre on the defencive, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Saturday questioned the very validity of AP Reorganisation Bill-2013 saying it was violative not only of parliamentary procedures but also the Constitution of India.
'The feeling in Telangana is that without her a separate state cannot be created... All the MPs and MLAs from Seema-Andhra have a business background. Their interest is to save their business,' Congress MP K Raj Gopal Reddy, who played a key role in Thursday's turbulent events, tells Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
BJP sources said their party has consistently maintained that while it is committed to the formation of a separate state of Telangana, it also wanted the concerns of the Seema-Andhra region to be adequately addressed. Oddly enough, Sushma Swaraj did not press this issue in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Anita Katyal reports.
Andhra Pradesh Civil Supplies Minister D Sridhar Babu resigned from the Cabinet on Thursday night protesting the divesting of legislative affairs portfolio that he had been holding for over three years now.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Tuesday refused to get drawn into the debate of the "original and final" AP Reorganisation Bill-2013 even as he wrote to the President seeking extension of deadline for discussing and returning it.
With almost 300 seats to the Lok Sabha being dominated by regional outfits, the Congress has added to the list by giving space to more regional forces in the Seema-Andhra and Telangana regions, says Saroj Nagi.
In an exclusive interview with rediff at his New Delhi residence this week, former Union Home Secretary G K Pillai categorically stated, "Smaller states have the advantage of effective administration as well as speedy development."
By changing the nation's name from India to Bharat, would this landmass overnight lose the emotional and cultural linkage that had been built over generations, centuries and millennia, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
'I would say it is not going to be days and weeks. It is going to be months and years, over which we would make an assessment on the decisions taken by the Parliament at this point of time. 'We are in for a long haul is what I would say.' It was a very diverse India, which was coming together, politically, in a very cohesive, democratically-resilient way." Professor Navnita Behera examines the wisdom of the exit of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
On the basis of many conversations with stakeholders on the Telangana issue, Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt presents an FAQ to help understand the politics of posturing and realpolitik on the ground to win seats. The questions are many and the answers are not straight
Reacting to the development, Naidu said such crises were not new to the party.
'If the leadership gets wrong information, what results you can expect?'
