File photo: K Chandrasekhar Rao, chief of Telangana Rashtra Samithi
The government's moves towards a Telangana state faltered on Tuesday after a key politician of the region, K Chandrasekhara Rao or KCR, warned of a massive agitation against any plans to redraw the boundaries of the new state to make it larger than originally discussed.
KCR called a total bandh or strike in the Telangana region on Thursday. "Now is the time for each one of you to prove you are a KCR," he said on Tuesday, urging professionals and students to ensure the shutdown is total.
KCR fronted the campaign that led to the government announcing the creation of Telangana by dividing Andhra Pradesh. The residuary state will consist of the regions of Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra. For 10 years, the IT hub of Hyderabad will be a shared capital after which it will belong to Telangana..
A group of ministers tasked with preparing a roadmap for India's 29th state could not finalise their report on Telangana yesterday as the meeting was said to be "inconclusive". They will meet again today to draft a Bill for the cabinet's approval.
KCR and his party, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi or TRS, say Telangana must have 10 districts. But the Centre reportedly wants to add two more districts from Rayalaseema to the new state to create a new entity, Rayalatelangana. That would give the old and new states 21 Lok Sabha and 147 assembly seats each - a move that the ruling Congress sees as politically astute ahead of the national elections, due by May.
Currently, Telangana elects 119 state legislators as compared to 153 from the other two regions.
Rayala-Telangana has been deemed unacceptable by KCR because voters there would blame him for allowing non-Telangana districts to access the region's water and other resources.
But the Congress sees in 'Rayalatelangana' a way of stumping both KCR and another major player, Jaganmohan Reddy of the YSR Congress, who has a strong base in Rayalaseema and stands to lose a chunk of his bastion to Telangana.