The Kiran Kumar Reddy government appears to be falling apart. In a day of several developments, while the chief minister successfully thwarted transport minister and PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana’s attempts to resign from the cabinet, governor E S L Narasimhan summoned finance minister Anam Ramnarayan Reddy, enquired from him about the state’s finances and urged the government to take steps to end the agitation in Seemandhra that entered the 61st day on Saturday.
In the meantime, almost all the Telangana ministers criticised Kiran Kumar Reddy for his staunch opposition to the bifurcation of the state.
The number of ministers frequenting Raj Bhavan has been increasing by the day, with minister Dokka Manikya Vara Prasad and Guntur MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao as well as Botsa calling on Narasimhan on Friday. “Governance has virtually collapsed and the state is gravitating towards central rule,” complained a Congress minister.
Botsa had called on the governor on Friday night to inform him of his decision to quit the Kiran ministry on Saturday. On Saturday morning, the PCC chief met the CM who reportedly advised Botsa against quitting. “Botsa wanted to quit because the CM was hogging all the limelight as a champion of united Andhra while the PCC chief was getting marginalized,” said sources. Minutes after Botsa left the CM’s camp office without committing anything, Kiran accepted the resignation of animal husbandry minister P Viswaroop, who had met the governor on Thursday to press for the acceptance of his resignation.
When the CM’s principal secretary Binoy Kumar went to Raj Bhavan with Viswaroop’s resignation letter, finance minister Anam was closeted with the governor. According to sources, Narasimhan accepted the resignation letter of Viswaroop in front of Anam. Later in the afternoon, Botsa held a meeting with cabinet colleagues Anam, N Raghuveera Reddy, P Balaraju and Kondru Murali where he was advised not to resign as the CM is likely to accept it immediately.
“The ministers conveyed to Botsa that the CM had accepted Viswaroop’s resignation and felt that the same would happen to Botsa as well. Finally, the PCC chief decided against going ahead with his resignation,” said a source. “There is no cause for action now. We should not resign in a hurry. Let the T-resolution or the bill come to Assembly first. We will register our opposition to the bill and then resign,” Anam told INN.
Martyr ploy behind Kiran’s rebellion?
Andhra Pradesh chief minister Kiran Reddy’s mutinous rhetoric over the proposed division of the state has strengthened the Congress leadership’s suspicion that he is seeking to invite expulsion so that he can break away by posing as a martyr for the united Andhra cause.
The party leadership, which has been wary of Reddy’s intentions since he upped the ante against the creation of Telangana, sees the rebellious note that the CM struck on Friday as a prelude to open defiance. Reddy, while talking to reporters in Hyderabad on Friday, had lashed out at the central leadership, breaching the lakshman rekha that Congress CMs can cross only at their own peril.
He also offered an overview of what was going to be his plank when he decides to strike out on his own by saying that he was ready to sacrifice the post of CM for united Andhra’s sake. He went on to say that he would not be forgiven by the coming generations if he were to acquiesce in the decision to bifurcate the state.
The drastic comment only tied into the growing estimate that Reddy has already embarked on a course which might lead to his expulsion as well as other consequences, including imposition of President’s rule in the state, considering that formation of an alternative government will be rather difficult.
While Reddy’s evolution into a rebel and wannabe satrap may appear surprising considering that he was brought in as a replacement for his predecessor K Rosaiah largely on the basis of his credentials as a “loyalist Reddy”, the metamorphosis happened rapidly once the Congress decided to stay firm on the Telangana course. Reports reaching Delhi suggest that he has — for all practical purposes — decided to pitch his tent and may break away after the Union Cabinet clears the Telangana proposal paving the way for the drafting of the bill for the division of Andhra Pradesh.
The Union Cabinet is likely to take up the Telangana issue as early as next week in the first meeting of the Cabinet after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returns from the US.
This is going to set in motion a chain of events, with the CM, by all appearances, determined to compete with another Reddy challenger to Congress, Jaganmohan, for reaping the anti-Telangana sentiments in the Rayalaseema and coastal regions of the state that together account for 25 Lok Sabha seats.
This should virtually extinguish all hopes of Congress from the Seemandhra region. The anxiety is reflected in the desperate measures that party MPs from the area have been forced to take to signal their distance from the Telangana decision. Eight Congress MPs again met Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to “persuade” her to accept their resignations. However, Congress seems comfortable with the calculation that the creation of Telangana will help it in a big way in the region with 17 Lok Sabha seats.
Even a sweep of the region will pale before the 30 plus tallies that Congress posted in AP in the last two consecutive Lok Sabha elections, but party strategists hope that they would be better off than what their lot would have been in a united Andhra where YSR Congress-Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) pincer would have elbowed them out in the entire state.
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