Protests against a proposed Rayala-Telangana
The government today scrapped a proposal for a larger Telangana state to return to the original plan of having 10 districts in the new state to be carved out of Andhra Pradesh.
A massive
bandh today ensured a total shutdown of the entire Telangana region. The
bandh or strike was called by politician K Chandrasekhara Rao or KCR to reject the plan to add two districts from Rayalaseema to the new state to create "Rayala-Telangana".
Andhra Pradesh currently has three regions - Telangana, Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema.
Hours after a group of ministers backed Rayala-Telangana, the government reportedly abandoned the plan.
The bill that sanctions the new state and will have to be cleared by Parliament will also revert to the original Telangana plan. The centre's decision came just hours after exit polls showed the BJP winning four of the five states that voted recently.
Smaller parties in Andhra Pradesh are, therefore, likely to side with the BJP. That makes it tough for the Congress to win support for Rayala-Telangana.
The BJP had said it would support the bill only if Telangana state has its 10 organic districts.
The people of Telangana are opposed to the annexation of two extra districts because they say water and other resources will be heavily strained. The booming IT hub of Hyderabad at the heart of Telangana has already been assigned as a shared capital between the old and new states for the next 10 years.
For the ruling Congress, the benefits of the 12-district plan are obvious - it will give the old and new states an equal number of seats in Parliament and the state legislature. By sanctioning statehood for Telangana, the Congress hoped to sweep the region. A victory there will counter any defeats in the other two parts of Andhra Pradesh, which have been opposed to the bifurcation of the state.