New Delhi:
The new state of Telangana will consist of the region's 10 current districts, the cabinet has decided. This evening, it abandoned a plan to annexe two more districts, a proposal fiercely opposed by the BJP. (
Read: How Congress self-goaled with Rayala-Telangana plan)
Exit polls have predicted a sweep for the BJP in four of the five states that voted recently. The results are due on Sunday. The centre figured that smaller parties will want to side with the BJP on the issue of how to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh.
That calculation has led to the burial of what's been called the Rayala-Telangana proposal, which could have helped the Congress glean dividends in the national elections, due by May.
A bill that clears Telangana with 10 districts as India's 29th state will now be sent to the President ,Pranab Mukherjee, after which it will be introduced in parliament.
Andhra Pradesh currently comprises of three regions - Telangana, Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema.
Telangana has 10 districts; the Congress wanted to annexe two from Rayalaseema. That would have given Telangana and the residuary state an equal number of seats in parliament and the state legislature. That could have paid off for the Congress, which is counting on Telangana to express its thanks for its statehood by voting for the party in the national elections.
K Chandrasekhara Rao or KCR, who fronted the campaign for a Telangana state, also made it clear with a massive bandh today that the area would not accept any additional districts.
The people of Telangana say that for years, their water, jobs and other resources have been unfairly exploited by the other two regions of Andhra Pradesh. Now that they are getting their own state, they say, they don't want to share what's rightfully theirs with people they see as "outsiders."
As it is, they say, they're losing out because the booming IT hub of Hyderabad at the heart of Telangana has been designated a shared capital between the old and new states for 10 years.