Hyderabad:
Sources today said President Pranab Mukherjee has granted a week's extension to the Andhra Pradesh legislature to complete its discussions on the bill aimed at creating the separate state of Telangana.
The extension overrules the state government's request to give it four more weeks for the deliberations. Though the Centre had agreed to recommend a 10-day extension, the President decided to extend the January 23 deadline by seven more days.
The new deadline brightens the chances of the creation of the new state before the Lok Sabha polls, likely to be held by May this year. The move is expected to shore up the Congress's prospects in Telangana region, which sends 17 members to the Lok Sabha.
The party is bracing for a meltdown in Seemandhra region - as coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions are known - which has been racked by popular protests against the proposal to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh and create India's 29th state.
The government wants to pass the Andhra Pradesh (Reorganisation) Bill, 2013, in Parliament when the current Lok Sabha meets for its two-week Budget session on February 5, the last before the national election.
Andhra Pradesh's Kiran Reddy government had expressed its inability to wind up the deliberations in time, citing over 9000 amendments moved in the state assembly.
Mr Reddy today said that though he owed his chief ministership to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, he "never thought the party would take such a decision."
"It is unfortunate that I am the Chief Minister at a time when the bifurcation is being discussed. I am totally opposed to the Telangana Bill. Only a united Andhra Pradesh is beneficial to all."