Why are Seemandhra MLAs shunning debate on T-bill in the Assembly? Are they resorting to this to use up all available time till Jan 23, the deadline set by the President for the T-debate? Or, is it a result of the competition among Congress, TDP and YSRC to emerge as true Samaikyandhra champions?
In the wake of the Assembly’s failure to debate the draft Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill-2013 on Wednesday, contrary to the decision taken by the House Business Advisory Committee on Tuesday, now various theories are doing the rounds on the reason behind the Seemandhra MLAs’ efforts to stall the House.
According to sources, some Seemandhra Congress members want to drag on the issue till Jan 23 by disrupting the House. They are of the opinion that if they could prolong it till the deadline, then they could seek another 20 days time for discussion on the Bill, making it difficult for the Centre to table the bill in Parliament.
Minister TG Venkatesh, a close aide of chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, the other day said, “We will use all sorts of strategies to prolong the discussion to consume the full time given by the President.”
Interestingly, some ministers and Congress MLAs from Seemandhra disagree with this strategy. They worry that if the House fails to debate the T-bill, it would be a great loss for their region because they would not be able to demand a “fair deal”.
Two-eyed Woes
While the Seemandhra Congress camp has its game plan, according to sources, TDP MLAs from the region have other reasons for obstructing the debate. It is learnt that the TDP leadership is worried that if the debate begins, Congress MLAs might try to paint TDP boss N Chandrababu Naidu as the prime culprit behind the division. However, TDP leader Devineni Umamheswara Rao said, “We won’t allow discussion on the bill till the issues relating to bifurcation are resolved.” The TDP MLAs even wrote to the Speaker on Wednesday saying they have several doubts over the contents of the bill, which must be clarified before taking up discussion. They even sought information on the revenue of AP and river water distribution in various regions in the state.
AFFIDAVITS
Some Seemandhra MLAs worry that stalling the debate might force the Speaker to wrap up the process of eliciting the views of the members. Foreseeing this possibility, some Congress MLAs have expedited submitting affidavits to the Speaker, the President and the SC.
One-upmanship
The YSRC which is pinning all its hopes on Seemandhra to perform well in the ensuing general polls is also trying to stall the debate in order to outdo its rivals TDP and Congress. The party wants a resolution in favour of Samikayndhra before starting the T-debate. “We won’t allow the House to debate the T-bill without moving a Samaikyandhra resolution first. Apart from this, there are several flaws in the bill. Hence, without fixing those flaws, it would not be possible to debate the bill,” party MLA Bhuma Shobha Nagi Reddy said.