Hyderabad:
The government is expected on Tuesday to announce that it will proceed to create a new state of Telangana. In the two other regions of Andhra Pradesh - coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema, protests against the bifurcation are intensifying.
Here are 10 developments in this story:
An additional 1,000 paramilitary soldiers have been sent from the Centre to the Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.
In both areas, "United Andhra" activists, students and politicians held protests today outside the offices and homes of union ministers who belong to these regions.
Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, who belongs to Rayalaseema, is reportedly upset with the Centre's decision to grant statehood to Telangana and met today with Congress leaders who believe the Centre is acting impulsively for immediate political gain in the national elections.
They say voters in their region will hold the Congress responsible for betraying their interests; some ministers have threatened to resign.
Mr Reddy is expected in Delhi today.
The Congress's top decision-making body, its Working Committee, is likely today to clear the new state. Before that, the Congress will get a formal sign-off from its allies at the Centre in a separate meeting. (Read)
Hyderabad and its teeming economy is an important part of the decision. The city has been the epicentre of the pro-Telangana movement. But it is also a financial necessity for the two other regions. So the Centre is likely to make it a shared capital between the old and new state.
Telangana hosts 17 of Andhra Pradesh's 42 parliamentary constituencies. So by sanctioning a new state, the Centre expects a positive response in the region in the national election, due by May, in which the Congress will ask for a third term in government.
The area also has 119 of the state's 294 assembly seats.
The demand for Telangana has been led by K Chandrasekhara Rao or KCR, who fasted in 2009 for nine days, triggering massive shows of street support.
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