The government, desperate to pass a bill to create Telangana ahead of the national election, due by May, was today publicly reproved by union minister Farooq Abdullah, who cautioned against going ahead with the plan without the approval of the people. The government is set to introduce the bill in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday after President Pranab Mukherjee cleared it.
Here are 10 developments in the story:
Farooq Abdullah said there had been "errors" in the handling of the Telangana row. "I think it has gone terribly out of gear. Terribly out of gear. 70 per cent of people do not want division. If people of a state don't want the division of the state, and the state assembly has rejected it, then we should not go ahead with it in Parliament," he told reporters today.
Mr Abdullah, whose National Conference co-governs Jammu and Kashmir with the Congress, said he was not present in the cabinet meeting on Friday that cleared the controversial bill.
The criticism from an ally comes at a time the Centre is trying to convince the main opposition BJP to support the bill in Parliament. Sources say senior ministers are holding a series of meetings with BJP leaders.
The BJP has reportedly asked for six changes in the bill, which includes the provision for a financial package for the Seemandhra region, or the area combining the two non-Telangana districts.
The Congress-led central government is determined to push the bill through before the session ends on February 21. The party's central leadership believes that the move will be a vote-getter in Telangana.
The BJP's support for Telangana might come at the cost of a series of anti-corruption bills that were also lined up for this short session, the last before the national election. The BJP had described these bills as "Rahul Gandhi's poll agenda."
The Congress last week accepted some of the demands of Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy and other politicians opposed to Telangana, but did not agree to designate the IT hub of Hyderabad a union territory. It will be a shared capital for the next 10 years between the old and new state but its revenue is unlikely to be divided, said sources.
Government offices in Seemandhra were shut today in protest against the Telangana plan.
The Chief Minister and other dissenters have been trying to delay the bill's introduction in Parliament hoping that Andhra Pradesh will head into the election undivided, sparing them the wrath of voters worried about losing power, water and other resources from Telangana.
Last week, the Congress' Seemandhra MPs submitted notice for a no confidence motion against the Prime Minister in the Lok Sabha, which could not be taken up due to repeated disruptions. Today, more such notices were filed by Congress and TDP MPs.
