With Telangana being awarded statehood, the demands for separate states in all corners of India have been stoked. While the Congress might have been prepared for most of them, they were probably not expecting trouble from a new quarter of a freshly-split Andhra Pradesh. While the UPA might not have been completely unfamiliar with a demand of this nature, the government was probably not expecting demands of a separate Rayalaseema state to get louder so soon.
The leaders in the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh want to carve out a separate state by adding two coastal districts of Nellore and Prakasham to Kurnool, Kadapa, Chittoor and Anantapur of Rayalaseema. They want Kurnool to be made the capital of this new state. HT quotes TG Venkatesh of Rayalaseema Hakkula Ikya Vedikastate and state minister for Kurnool:
“Give us a special package to ensure development here or create a greater Rayalaseema”
Incidentally, the reason why Rayalaseema now wants a separate state are identical to why people from Telangana had demanded statehood for the last five decades. Justice BN Srikrishna Committee in 2011 had said that in terms of resources and infrastructure the Rayalaseema region was the weakest in Andhra Pradesh. The residents and leaders of the Rayalaseema region now worry that Coastal Andhra will emerge as the more powerful region in what is left of Andhra Pradesh after Telangana is extracted from it.
Rayalaseema too has its fair share of grievances. At least five chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh hailed from the region. However, caught up in the politics of populism, they ignored development in the region. The report says:
Compared to Telangana and Andhra, Rayalaseema is worse off in industry, with the economy basically agrarian. The flight of capital from Rayalaseema to Karnataka, with the Reddy community investing in real estate and industry in Karnataka has accentuated its plight. At least half of Rayalaseema, Anantapur and Kurnool districts are culturally closer to Karnataka, sharing a common history with Karnataka since the days of the Vijayanagara kings whose empire encompassed the two States.
The demand for a separate Rayalaseema gained momentum a few years ago when senior TDP leader Baireddy Rajasekhara Reddy went on a fast demanding increased sops and development for the region. According to Andhra Headlines, Reddy had dismissed suggestions that Chandra Babu Naidu was behind the movement and urged other leaders of TDP to join the fast. AH reports:
It may be mentioned that Baireddy has declared that people of Rayalaseema were against bifurcation of the state. He said if the state were to be divided, it should be into three separates – Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telangana and not two.
