File photo: Kiran Kumar Reddy (centre) with supporting Seemandhra leaders
Kiran Kumar Reddy has promised that if his new party, Jai Samaikyandhra, wins all 25 Lok Sabha seats in the Seemandhra region, he will ensure that Andhra Pradesh will not be bifurcated to create Telangana.
The former Andhra Pradesh chief minister was formally launching his new party in Rajahmundry on Wednesday evening. He said unlike Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu and Jagan Mohan Raddy of the YSR Congress - who he alleged were fighting for the post of chief minister - he had resigned as chief minister "to fight for the Telugu people."
"Give us 25 seats in Seemandhra. We will put up young people, fresh blood. We will also put up candidates in Telangana. I have launched a party for Telugu people, not for posts," he said.
Mr Reddy resigned as chief minister last month after failing to stop Parliament from approving the creating India's 29th state, Telangana, by splitting Andhra Pradesh. He said today, "I lived 53 years in Hyderabad. Now to be asked to go out is very hurtful."
Elections to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly will be held along with general elections in April and May. Telangana will come into existence on June 2.
When Mr Reddy quit as chief minister, he also quit the ruling Congress, which pushed for bifurcation. Mr Reddy belongs to the Seemandhra region, which will form the residuary state. This region of Andhra Pradesh has been bitterly opposed to the split.
Mr Reddy today also attacked the Congress and the BJP for passing the Telangana Bill in Parliament last month.
"Peddababu Chandrababu Naidu and Chinnababu Jaganbabu on the one hand, and Peddamma Sonia Gandhi and Chinnamma Sushma Swaraj are responsible for dividing Telugu people," he said, projecting himself as the only political leader who had made a sacrifice for the cause of united Andhra Pradesh.