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Drive On Till T-point

Telangana bill has AP assembly in a tizzy

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Drive On Till T-point
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The Andhra Pradesh assembly has seen all kinds of spectacles in the past, but what’s happening now over the Telangana bill has everyone beat. Legislators have exchanged blows, shouted each other down, climbed on benches, screaming like schoolchildren, torn up copies of the Bill­— in short it’s been complete chaos. Every party is clearly playing to the gallery, spending more time holding impromptu press meets at the media point than inside the House.

Chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, who vows “110 per cent com­mitment” to keep AP united, is pulling out all the stops to drag the discussion in the assembly till Jan­uary 23 (and possibly seek an ext­ension from President Pranab Mukherjee). Seemandhra MLAs from the Telugu Desam and YSR Congress MLAs emphasise that they have a single-point agenda—that of stalling discussion on the bill.

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“The T-Bill contains absolutely no information, it does not have a financial memorandum, the objectives are not stated. What are the implications and complications of the Bill, what is the likely government employee situation, what about investm­ents, income and asset valuations? There are too many unanswered variables,” says Payyavula Keshav, TD MLA from Uravakonda. YSR Congress MLA from Rayachoti, G. Srikanth Reddy, wastes fewer words: “We will continue to stall the session. We want a resolution on united AP to be taken up in the House.”

In the opposition Telugu Desam, out of its 75 MLAs, 46 are for the united AP cause, 29 are from Telangana. All the 17 MLAs of the YSR Congress, on the other hand, are from Seemandhra. Among all this, there’s also another reality—it isn’t a constitutional necessity for the assembly to pass the bill. That said, the stormy scenes playing out in front of TV cameras seem to be giving some hope to the Seemandhra lot while Telangana protagonists watch with growing unease. They feel a delayed assembly session might result in the T-Bill at the Centre being pushed to the budget session of Parli­a­m­ent. TD’s Payyavula Keshav is confident the Bill cannot be cleared during the vote-on-account Budget session. “The Centre can’t even ensure a regular session of Parliament,  it stands completely discredited, what with its own MPs moving a no-confidence motion. How can such a weak UPA push forth such an important bill?” he asks.

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TRS floor leader in the assembly Eetala Rajender says all the atte­m­pts by Seemandhra MLAs to stall discussions smack of political hyp­o­crisy. “The ploy to break the debate into three stages, with holidays as breaks, is a desperate one,” he says. TRS MLA Harish Rao has deplored the CM’s strategy to get Seemandhra MLAs and MLCs to file affidavits with the president and SC to delay the process. But there is an unsure edge to their  voices too. TRS MLAs and T-Congress lea­d­ers say there is no way the bill can be stopped now, but worry that the UPA government, weak from its defeat in four state elections, might dither when it comes to actual bifurcation.

But some also believe this is just the middle game wobbling. “The dramatic scenes at the assembly don’t really amount to anything. The Seemandhra MLAs are try­ing to cre­ate an illusion that they are opp­osing the bill to the hilt,”  says MLC K. Nag­eshwar. The Telangana Bill, indeed, can be passed by Parliament with a simple majority, it does not even require a two-thirds majority. “When both the Congress and the main opposition BJP are in agreement on the bill, how can any­one stop statehood unless one of the par­t­ies changes its mind?” he asks.

Meanwhile, several in-house sur­veys show that the Congress voteshare, which stood at around 37 per cent in the 2009 elections, has dipped to 20 per cent. Almost everyone agrees that the Congr­ess has shot itself in the foot with the T-issue. While voters in Seemandhra will be unforgiving, the electorate in Telan­gana is leaning increasingly towards the TRS. Party boss K. Chandrasekhara Rao has stood his gro­und, ruling out any pact with the Congress till the T-Bill is passed in Parliament. They are also hunting for straggler MLAs keen to jump ship. The TRS hopes to shore up its numbers in the next assembly polls to at least 55 seats and an LS count of 12 seats. In the mea­ntime, the assembly drama continues.

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By Madhavi Tata in Hyderabad

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