Hyderabad:
With a severe cyclone forecast for Saturday night for Andhra Pradesh, a power crisis in the districts that are likely to be affected is about to end. Thousands of employees who work for state-run power plants have agreed to end their strike, now in its sixth day, held to punish the Centre for its decision to bifurcate the state.
The breakthrough came this afternoon in talks between chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy and representatives of unions, who promised that employees will report to work at 6 am tomorrow.
They warned that their decision is based on a commitment to assisting the state to withstand the impact of the cyclone, and that their strike may resume later.
Last week, the centre sanctioned urgent steps to carve out Telangana - one of the three regions of Andhra Pradesh - as a complete state. The other two regions - Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema, which have 13 districts between them and are referred to as Seemandhra - reacted with fierce protests.
The chief minister, like so many other leaders from Seemandhra, has castigated the Centre for its decision on Telangana. But the government in Delhi has ruled out reconsidering its plans.
Once the state is divided, Telangana will have 17 of Andhra Pradesh's 42 Parliamentary seats. Critics of the bifurcation say the Congress wants to sweep Telangana in the approaching national election, and is surrendering the interests of Seemandhra for electoral dividends.
Jagan Mohan Reddy and Chandrababu Naidu, the heads of two regional parties, embarked on hunger strikes to fight the Centre. Mr Naidu's fast is in its fourth day in Delhi. Mr Reddy was moved by the police in Hyderabad last night to a hospital where he was force-fed after doctors warned that his health was worrying because he had not eaten in five days.