It is pouring for Kiran Reddy.
First the Telengana agitation paralysed the state and now he has to reckon with a fresh separatist demand: Rayalaseema.
The Telangana movement, both within and outside the Congress has upset electoral calculations and the Rayalaseema movement is likely to worsen things for the state government and the Congress in this poll bound state.
Rayalaseema leaders who want a state of their own believe that sooner than later, whichever party or political coalition that may be in power in the centre, would have to deliver Telangana because people would not settle for anything less after the three years of intense agitation.
“I want to know what would be Rayalaseema's fate in the event of the formation of Telangana. We do not want to remain as appendages to either Andhra or Telangana. If the government keeps the state united, that is fine, otherwise we also want a state of our own,” says TDP leader and founder of Rayalaseema Parirakshana Samiti Byreddi Rajasekhara Reddy.
The samiti organised a meeting in Hyderabad recently where it had been decided to take the struggle to its logical end.
“Our struggle is for identity in the event of formation of Telangana state,” another Rayalaseema leader M V Ramana Reddy said.
At the meeting, a joint action committee was formed with Rajasekhara Reddy as convenor and Ramana Reddy as chairman to take the movement forward.
As the Rayalaseema Parirakshana Samiti gets down to building a movement, there is a flutter in the Congress since they would have to cope with another separatist faction at a time when general elections are just two years away.
The Rayalaseema Samiti is planning to organaise an 800 km padayatra from October 2 which will end on November 16; the anniversary of the signing of the Sribagh Pact in 1937 between the leaders of Rayalaseema and Andhra Pradesh.
Though the movement is yet to acquire momentum, the leaders are confident of successful escalation.
“There is spontaneous response from students and youth. I am sure it would become a major movement and would force the rulers to do justice to Rayalaseema,” Rajasekhara Reddy said.
He dismisses the criticism that the Rayalaseema movement was started to only stall creation of Telangana.
“We have no objection to the formation of Telangana but we only want a state of our own in such an event,” he said