Union Textiles Minister K Sambasiva Rao on Thursday resigned from the Union Cabinet protesting bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, fuelling speculation that he may join Bharatiya Janata Party.
The no-confidence notice moved by 6 Congress parliamentarians against the UPA government on the Telangana issue has found favour with 84 more Seema-Andhra leaders.
The Congress will be wiped out in the next elections, Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, one of the six MPs who was expelled by the Congress for opposing the creation of Telangana, tells Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa.
The issue of resignation by Congress MPs from Seemandhra continues to hang fire. Their meeting with Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, which was scheduled for Tuesday, has been delayed further.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar rejected the resignations submitted by 13 MPs from Andhra Pradesh, including ten from Congress and two of YSR Congress, against the decision on Telangana, holding these were "not voluntary or genuine". The YSR Congress MPs included party chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.
N Chandrababu Naidu and his Telugu Desam party face a dilemma of how to woo both sides of the Andhra Pradesh divide, reports Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa
It is not just film stars who are spicing up the poll scene in Andhra Pradesh, but also corporate honchos who are jumping on to the political bandwagon to try their fortunes in Lok Sabha and assembly polls.
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.
Though the people of Andhra Pradesh seem to have more or less reconciled to the fact that bifurcation of the state is inevitable, political parties in Seemandhra are leaving no stone unturned to stall the proposed division process, at least till the 2014 elections.
In an open defiance, Union Minister M M Pallam Raju on Wednesday questioned the government's hurry to push the Telangana bill and said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's disapproval of disruptions in Parliament was not "fair".
The Centre on Thursday evening took the first significant step towards creation of a separate Telangana state from out of Andhra Pradesh and decided that Hyderabad will be the joint capital of the two states for 10 years.
