By IANS,
Hyderabad : Those opposing the carving out of a separate Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh Tuesday saw the defeat of the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh as a verdict against the party’s proposal to divide the state into four smaller entities.
They asked Andhra Pradesh parties fighting for separate statehood to the Telangana region to draw lessons from the poll results.
Main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) said people have rejected Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, who wanted to divide the state.
TDP leader P. Keshav, who is opposed to the demand for the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, said those who wanted to divide Uttar Pradesh were voted out of power by the people.
“People have taught a lesson to those trying to draw political mileage in the name of division of the state (Uttar Pradesh). This should be an eye-opener for (Andhra Pradesh) parties which are making similar attempts,” he said.
However, advocates of a separate Telangana state rejected Andhra Pradesh’s comparison with Uttar Pradesh.
Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) legislator K. Tarakarama Rao said the fight for Telangana state was entirely different from the situation in the northern state.
“It is not proper to draw a parallel between the two,” he told reporters and pointed out that the Telangana movement was more than four decades old.
Congress leader and state minister K. Jana Reddy also did not agree with those trying to compare Telangana with Uttar Pradesh.
The Uttar Pradesh results have come at a time when the TRS is fighting the March 18 by-elections to six assembly constituencies in Telangana on the issue of separate state.
Without naming Telangana, TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu said the situation had undergone a drastic change since the last by-elections, which the TRS had swept.
Naidu said even if the Congress decided to carve out a Telangana state ahead of the 2014 elections, it would not have any impact on the TDP’s prospects. He was confident that the TDP would return to power in the next elections.