After having gone out on a limb over the creation of Telangana, the UPA government is expected to go for the kill and do whatever it takes to pass the bill in Lok Sabha. But the question remains whether the Congress would really be able to push the bill in the noise and confusion. Renu Mittal reports.
In an apparent bid to scuttle the move to form Telangana, Congress Member of Parliament L Rajagopal on Sunday threatened to go on a hunger strike if a resolution favouring the separate state was not introduced in the Andhra Pradesh assembly, which, he claimed, will be opposed by 225 members of Andhra Pradesh assembly.
The Union Cabinet, which recently cleared the note on the formation of Telangana and paved the way for the creation of the new state, will do its best to ensure that the process is completed by December 9, when the chief minister of the state is likely to be sworn in.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has referred MPs' complaints on the issue involving BJP member Ramesh Bidhuri's use of objectionable words against BSP's Danish Ali to the Privileges Committee, sources said on Thursday.
Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday met Congress President Sonia Gandhi and is understood to have submitted a report on his consultations with party lawmakers from Andhra Pradesh on the Telangana issue, amid mounting pressure for an "early decision" on the statehood demand.
Lok Sabha on Tuesday looked like a virtual battle-ground during the consideration of the controversial Telangana Bill with Congress members seen protecting Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and other top leaders from protesting members.
The Congress Working Committee is likely to take a final decision on the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh to create a state of Telangana on Tuesday.
The UPA II government's next move rests on a 'yes' or 'no' to Telangana by the Congress core committee, which meets in Hyderabad on Friday to take a political decision on the issue that has created a crisis in Andhra Pradesh since the past three weeks.
The Justice Srikrishna committee is understood to have recommended six options to deal with the Telangana statehood demand, on which the government may take a call in approximately six weeks.
With the demand for the creation of a separate state of Telangana gaining momentum, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy met Congress President Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Sunday and is understood to have discussed the contentious matter.
The Bahujan Samaj Party will support the bill for creation of a separate Telangana state if it was introduced in the Parliament, the party supremo and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati, said in Hyderabad on Saturday.
Leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley speaks on the debate on the Andhra Pradesh (Reorganisation) Bill, 2014
Protesting against the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, Congress MP from Rayalseema region Rayapati Samba Siwaa Rao resigned from the primary membership of the party on Friday while heaping praise on Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
KCR will continue as caretaker chief minister until the new government is formed.
Top Congress leaders held deliberations on Saturday at the first meeting of the new Congress Working Committee (CWC) focusing on preparing a comprehensive road map for ensuring the party's victory in the upcoming assembly polls in five states and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Supporters of the Telangana movement are celebrating the results of the by-polls held in Andhra Pradesh. The Telangana Rashtra Samiti has swept the by-polls and pro-Telangana activists claim that the election result is an open message to the Shri Krishna Commission.TRS general secretary Subhash Reddy said, "I am elated.The Shri Krishna Commission doesn't need better proof of the people's sentiments about the issue. This result is an open letter to the commission."
A crucial meeting of the Congress Core Group on Friday will discuss the Telangana issue with "both options open" as a decision "cannot be postponed anymore", said senior party leader Digvijay Singh.
Pro and anti-Telangana supporters on Wednesday clashed with each other during a protest outside the Andhra Bhawan in New Delhi in support of their demands.
A top Home Ministry official said no note has been prepared yet to be placed before tomorrow's scheduled meeting of the Cabinet to be chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Amid pressure from various quarters for an early decision on the creation of a separate state of Telangana, the government on Saturday said more consultations with various parties are needed on the contentious statehood demand and the exercise would take "some time" to end. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and political secretary to Congress president Ahmed Patel discussed the situation in Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh.
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Congress President Sonia Gandhi asked Telangana leaders to maintain "restraint, brotherhood and cordial relations" with people of Andhra and Rayalaseema regions as the process started for creation of a separate state.
Amid fresh violence over Telangana in Andhra Pradesh, Congress on Wednesday appealed for calm and normalcy but refused to say whether any mechanism for its creation will be announced by January 28, a deadline set by those agitating for the separate state.
The party's gamble to go in for early elections paid rich dividends.
The credit for the creation of Telangana goes to those who laid down their lives for the state, activists tell Vicky Nanjappa
Though the terms of reference of the committee to look into the creation of a Telangana state may come in the next few days, the Congress is worried about the 'political' price it may have to pay for moving too fast on the statehood issue.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday, rejected the newly-formed expert group on Telangana "lock, stock and barrel", saying that it was a delaying tactic and a futile exercise as no time-frame or terms of reference had been spelt out for the committee by the government.
The Telangana issue has rekindled Bodo tribe's demand for statehood in Assam besides adding fire to the long-standing statehood demands of different other ethnic communities including Karbi, Dimasa, Koch-Rajbongshi.
K T Rama Rao, son of Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief K Chandrasekhara Rao, said late on Wednesday that moving a resolution in Andhra Pradesh assembly for creation of separate Telangana state was not enough and asked the Centre to introduce a bill in Parliament for this.
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Prakash Javadekar and Pushpdan Gadhavi have bagged time to push for the creation of Telangana -- in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha respectively -- during the fortnight-long Parliament session beginning on Thursday.Javadekar, whose resolution is listed for February 20, told reporters that he was only pursuing his party's line to fight for Telangana. It will also figure in the BJP's poll manifesto, he affirmed.
Creation of a Telangana state will not only encourage demand for new states but also new districts and this will only weaken the country, social activist and anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare said in Azamgarh on Thursday.
Confident that the Central government would not back out of creation of Telangana, Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader K Chandrashekhar Rao on Thursday said the Congress and the Centre needed some time to act on it.
Hyderabad remained tense on Sunday in anticipation of an announcement by the Centre on the creation of a separate state of Telangana by Sunday evening. Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde is expected to meet party chief Sonia Gandhi and other senior leaders before making a final announcement on Telangana by Sunday evening.
Prime minister Manmohan Singh and several Congress leaders are against the formation of a separate state but are supporting the decision in the hope that it would win the party seats in the region. Renu Mittal reports
Veering towards conceding the demand for a separate Telangana, the Congress has convened a meeting of its working committee, the party's highest policy-making body, on Tuesday after deliberations on the issue in the United Progressive Alliance coordination committee.
Hyderabad, which would be the joint capital of Telangana and the Andhra region for 10 years, could be modelled after Delhi where law and order is handled by the Centre, Congress leader Digvijay Singh has said.
"We want Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to officially announce the Congress party's stand on Telangana and also initiate the process for carving out the separate state," TRS founder president and parliamentarian K Chandrasekar Rao told media persons in Hyderabad at Telangana Bhavan, the party headquarters.
Why did the government hide the content of the 8th chapter of the Sri Krishna report on the formation of Telangana? Vicky Nanjappa reveals the explosive suggestions made in that chapter
The Telangana unit of the Congress has requested Member of Parliament Ponnam Prabhakar to vacate his Karimnagar seat and make way for party vice president Rahul Gandhi.
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