The Congress in Andhra Pradesh finds itself in a very uncomfortable position, with nearly 40 per cent of the members of the legislative assembly resigning over the Telangana issue. The question many are asking is, will the Congress continue to sit over these resignations and dodge the issue, or does it have something in mind?
The Congress is aware that it may not be able to hold off for too long since the protests over Telangana appear to be growing stronger with every passing day. Earlier, it was being discussed that the Congress may try and save at least one region and that was most likely to be the Telangana region. However, now it appears that the Congress has a strategy and has chalked out something so that it could save all three regions in Andhra Pradesh.
The think-tanks within the Congress have been discussing this issue since the past one week and have decided to remain non-committal, at least till the end of this month.
They have decided to announce a package that would suit all regions. The Congress leadership has realised that it will need to announce the formation of a separate state. Hence they are planning to do the same before dissolving the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly and then going in for elections.
Once the formation of a separate state is announced, then the party really would have no problem in getting the numbers in Telangana during the next elections. The biggest threat for the Congress would then be from the Telangana Rastriya Samithi. Sources in both the parties say that this aspect has been taken care. In the coming days both the parties are likely to enter into a tie-up, after which the Congress would announce a merger with the party.
This is primarily being done so that the votes do not get split between the two parties. The people of Telangana would have to choose between the TRS, which has been fighting for the cause of separate statehood, or the Congress, which actually made their dream come true. Hence both the parties realise that a merger is the best option when they fight the elections in a separate Telangana state.
Now this brings us to the other two regions -- Andhra and Rayalseema. There is a major Jagan Reddy wave in these regions and any wrong move on the part of the Congress could land them in big trouble. They are pretty sure that Jagan would not take a strong stance on the Telangana issue and hence he would end up being the hero in the Seema-Andhra region.
Various polls and surveys indicate that when one speaks about the Telangana issue, the big bone of contention has always been Hyderabad. When the people from the Seema-Andhra region speak of a united Andhra Pradesh they have always meant that they want Hyderabad. The people of this belt have a lot of investment in Hyderabad and they feel that they may be driven out if Hyderabad is taken away from the Seema-Andhra belt and made the exclusive capital of Telangana.
The Congress is aware of this and has decided that it would keep Hyderabad as the common capital. Once this is done it would cool the nerves of the people from the Seema-Andhra belt and the Congress would not lose favour with its voters.
However, this could create a problem again for them in Telangana. The people of this region have been saying that there is no question of sharing the capital, and Hyderabad is a part and parcel of Telangana. They also quote the former home secretary of India G K Pillai, who had made a statement to this effect.
The Congress does realise that the capital issue could become a problem and hence has decided that it would announce that Hyderabad be the capital of both regions for the next five years.
This would basically be the period for those investors to make other arrangements. However, the people of Telangana see this as a ploy and at the end of five years they feel that the Congress may end up maintaining a status quo in the case of Hyderabad.
The Congress, however, feels that the people of Telangana must agree to some sort of a compromise formula and once the statehood is announced then they would not argue too much on this issue. The Congress says it has to take care of the interests of each and every person and this is the best workable solution available to them.
While these issues continue to be discussed, the Congress is also planning on having an all-party meeting on this issue.
