By IANS,
Hyderabad/New Delhi: Congress MPs from Andhra Pradesh divided sharply over Telangana Wednesday lobbied with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other party leaders as protests against the formation of the proposed state raged in Rayalseema and coastal Andhra regions.
Rallies, demonstrations, road and rail blockades as well as relay hunger strikes continued in most parts of coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema where desperate efforts are on to prevent the birth of Telangana, a state that will be made up of 10 districts including Hyderabad.
Sporadic incidents of violence were reported from various places though Inspector General of Police A.R. Anuradha insisted that the situation was by and large peaceful.
Buses and most private vehicles remained off the roads in both these regions, whose political leaders in all parties are determined to prevent the birth of Telangana.
In New Delhi, Congress MPs from coastal Andhra and Rayalseema called on Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to campaign against Telangana.
At the same time, Congress MPs from Telangana met Mukherjee as well as Congress general secretary M. Veerappa Moily, who is in charge of Andhra Pradesh.
Both camps pleaded their case with passion.
“I am for united Andhra Pradesh,” central Minister of State for Human Resource Development D. Purandeswari told IANS, before meeting the prime minister.
A Congress MP from Telangana told Mukherjee: “You gave us a very good gift. Don’t take it back.”
Sarvey Sathyanarayana, Congress MP from Malkajgiri Lok Sabha constituency in Telangana, added that party president Sonia Gandhi would not go back on the pledge to form the new state.
“She has already given a promise. She did justice to us,” the MP told IANS.
But political deadlock persisted in Andhra Pradesh, where the assembly has been adjourned after Rayalseema and coastal Andhra legislators resigned en masse.
Vijayawada Congress MP L. Rajagopal continued his “fast unto death” for the second day while Congress legislator Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy in Kadapa remained on hunger strike. An indefinite hunger strike by TDP legislators in Vijayawada and Anantapur entered the fourth day.
All of them are ranged against Telangana.
After TDP, the Praja Rajyam Party (RPP) of actor-turned-politician K. Chiranjeevi was also headed for a split after the party did a volte-face on the issue of separate statehood for Telangana region.
With Chiranjeevi deciding to go back on his commitment to separate Telangana, his party leaders from the economically backward region staged a revolt.
Activists of Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and student groups stopped the screening of films of Chiranjeevi’s son Ram Charan Teja at theatres in the region.
Protests continued at Sri Krishnadevaraya University in Anantapur, which witnessed clashes between students and police Tuesday.
Some students on hunger strike at Andhra University in the coastal city of Visakhapatnma were also forcibly shifted to hospital.
Congress legislators from Andhra and Rayalaseema have decided to go to New Delhi Dec 21 to meet the party’s central leaders to plead their cause.
As many as 139 legislators, including 80 of the Congress, from these two regions have resigned from the state assembly. But Speaker Kirankumar Reddy has not yet accepted the resignations.
Ministers from Telangana region met separately to chalk out their future course of action.
“When 10 states of Hindi-speaking people could co-exist in harmony, why can’t two Telugu states co-exist?” asked senior Congress leader and former union minister G. Venkatswamy.