By IANS,
New Delhi : With Telangana parties pushing for a separate state, Home Minister P. Chidambaram Friday informed the Lok Sabha that four political parties in Andhra Pradesh were yet to make up their mind on the issue and asked all sections to allow consultations to be over.
Chidambaram was responding to a calling attention motion on Telangana in the lower house.
The centre is in a fix over the demands for Telangana and resignations by members of parliament and legislative assembly from the region.
Chidambaram said four political parties of Andhra Pradesh out of eight were yet to “make up their mind” on statehood for Telangana.
Three parties — Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Communist Party of India (CPI) — have already favoured a new state, while CPI-Marxist has opposed it, he said.
Ruling Congress, opposition Telugu Desam Party, Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress and Hyderabad-based Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) are yet to voice their final opinion on the statehood.
“Kindly make up your mind fast,” Chidambaram appealed to the four parties.
“We are urging the parties… kindly complete your process of consultation. Then we can call a meeting,” he said and appealed to the people, especially youth, to maintain calm and not to take any extreme step like suicides.
The debate on the motion, moved by Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj, saw a divided house. The Congress MPs from in Andhra Pradesh too were a split lot, prompting Chidambaram say he was sad while responding to the motion as it was a “very divisive debate” as he had feared.
Sushma Swaraj, initiating the debate, expressed BJP’s readiness to ensure two-thirds majority support to a bill for Telangana formation if the government brought it to parliament.
The home minister, however, said the delay in the government’s decision was due to the altered ground situation in the state after the December 2009 announcement by the centre on the separate Telangana.
He also appealed to all sections to allow the consultation process over the six options given by the five-member retired Justice B.N. Srikrishna panel to reach its logical conclusion.
“A suitable decision will be taken in the light of these discussions,” Chidambaram said, but noted that the centre was closely watching the political situation as well as the law and order in the state.