It is not a situation the Congress is quite used to. Its chief minister who had so far restricted himself to articulating his disapproval of the party leadership's decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh to press conferences and select interviews, has now gone public.
At the public interface programme in Visakhapatnam on Friday, Kiran Kumar Reddy called upon the people to show their resentment over the decision. "I am asking this separation is for who. Raise your hands for united Andhra Pradesh," he said. And when the crowd responded to his call, he decided to address Delhi saying "this is public wish. Raise both hands to show your strength to Delhi."
The Congress is stumped by its chief minister turning chief dissident. When it bit the bullet on Telangana, it had factored in the resentment it would cause in Seemandhra region but its intelligence sleuths had not informed it about two developments that were likely to take place. One, that Kiran Kumar Reddy would put up a strong fight and two, the strike by government employees in the region that went on for more than two months.
While his three years in power have been nothing to write home about as far as quality of governance goes, Kiran's stature has certainly gone up by a few notches in the Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra region. That of course is inversely proportional to how he is perceived in Telangana. Kiran continues to bat for a united Andhra Pradesh despite his party high command's best efforts to rein him in, pointing out that both sides - and more so, Telangana - will lose out in the event of division. He calls himself an integrationist and someone who has the best interests of all regions in mind.
On one of the occasions that I met him since the July 30 announcement on Telangana, I asked him if he thought Telangana state will not be reality before the general elections. "Telangana state will never be a reality," he replied emphatically, even as I wondered if he was living more in hope.
But it is not as if Kiran does not have a plan up his sleeve. He thinks an adverse vote in the Andhra Pradesh assembly will turn the tide of public opinion, not just in the state's two regions, but even in the rest of the country against the decision. The thinking also is that it will then give legal muscle against the decision. Which is why the Congress leadership in turn is working on a plan to replace Kiran if he chooses to be defiant. Delhi leaders are averse to giving him a platform like the state assembly to go out all guns blazing but the problem is choosing a new leader will only be time consuming as a CLP meeting will be needed to be called. Plus there is the question of who can be trusted to carry out the diktat of Delhi to its satisfaction, someone who will sacrifice his political career in Seemandhra for the sake of becoming CM for four to five months.
Congress Seemandhra leaders are hoping that the BJP will play truant in Parliament at the last minute, protesting against a raw deal meted out to Seemandhra. They say if Telangana does not happen before April, they can go to the people, claiming they prevented it from happening. But will the voters plump for them if they contest on a Congress ticket. Highly unlikely.
Despite rumours of Kiran floating a party, the CM himself does not seem inclined to. He has the reputation of being a loner and he will have very little time to build an outfit. At best, he will end up becoming the BS Yeddyurappa of Andhra Pradesh, something that will hardly bring him any cheer.
All indications are that the President will send the Telangana bill for discussion to the Andhra Pradesh assembly in the last week of November or the first week of December. The heat that will be generated will be good enough to take care of the winter chill that has descended over Hyderabad.
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