Hyderabad:
A surprise announcement at midnight, sanctioning a new state, has backfired colossally for the central government.
96 MLAs from Andhra Pradesh have resigned in protest against the government's green light for a separate state of Telangana. They come from different parties, and belong Coastal Andhra or Rayalaseema. 43 resignations from the Congress, 42 from Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party, another 11 from Chiranjeevi's Prajarajyam Party (PRP).
At the end of the long day, Congress leaders inDelhi worked for a consensus. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi helddiscussions with senior leaders on Thursday night. After the meeting,party sources said they were not unduly worried over the developmentsand hoped a consensus would be arrived at amicably.
Speaking to NDTV earlier,Law Minister Veerappa Moily said the party is concerned with the massresignations in Andhra.
On Wednesday night, Home Minister P Chidambaram Okayed a Telagana state - after weeks of tension in Andhra, and hours ahead of a gigantic rally in Telangana that showed all the potential of a violent uprising. Defending the late-night decision, Chidambaram on Thursday said, "The matter could not have waited another day. We had to restore normalcy and by and large it has been restored."
An explanation now rejected by his own men. "We are terribly hurt by the High Command's decision. We want Sonia Gandhi to change her decision," says Anam Vivekananda Reddy, a Congress MLA from Nellore. The unspeakable act - its own men lashing out at the party's top leadership - reflects the midnight miscalculation of the Congress. If the resignations are accepted, the Congress will be in minority. The TDP and PRP which had earlier said they would support a resolution on Telangana have done a u-turn, in the face of widespread opposition from their own MLAs.
That prompted Chief Minister K Rosaiah to state that a Bill on a Telangana state will not be moved in the Assembly till there's a consensus on the issue. "I request you all not to get provoked. In case the Bill is presented in the Assembly, it has to pass by a majority. Only then it will be successful. The process itself has not yet started. So there is no need for so much chaos," he said.
Speaking to NDTV, the Andhra speaker, Kiran Kumar Reddy, said the Congress government in Andhra is not yet in danger because he has not accepted any resignations.
In Delhi, Congress President Sonia Gandhi met MPs from Andhra in the evening, promising her non-Telangana MPs that all views would be taken into account.
Back at home, in Hyderabad, K Chandrasekhar Rao, in a wheelchair, surrounded by his supporters, appeared in public to flash the Victory sign. Rao's 11-day hunger strike evoked much passion among pro-Telangana groups led by his own party, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS).
In the midst of its celebrations, the TRS was quick to state that it will not accept a separate state without Hyderabad. That is one of the major points of conflict. Non-Telangana regions insist that there is no question of handing Hyderabad over; and the proposal of Hyderabad as a shared capital is apparently unacceptable to Telangana groups.
While the government figures out how to diffuse an embarrassing crisis, Chandrababu Naidu has his own homework cut out for him. More than 40 of his 93 MLAs have resigned, in what's seen as direct defiance. After all, Naidu has been supporting the cause for a Telangana state. So with his party split down the middle, he quickly attacked, blaming Sonia Gandhi and the Congress for not consulting other parties. "Hyderabad's credibility has been hit, nobody will invest here. Sonia and the Congress have failed to evolve a consensus...we have become a laughing stock."
When Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, died as chief minister in a helicopter crash in September, the Congress central party leadership geared up for a revolt. They expected the Andhra Congress to rally much stronger and louder for YSR's son, Jagan Mohan, to become the next chief minister. As it turns out, that was a relatively easy issue for the Congress to address. The new divisions within the party over Telangana, analysts say, reflect a new reality: no local politician can be seen as abandoning his or her claim to Hyderabad and its economy. And more than regional identity, this is what counts.