The proposal to float a regional party in Seemandhra, which was nascent till the other day, seems to be taking a shape now.
After failing to persuade their party high command to reconsider its decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh, some Seemandhra Congress lawmakers have started formulating their future course of action.
Seeing that the electoral fortunes of their party are declining with each passing day in Seemandhra, in the wake of party leadership’s firm resolve to divide the state, some ruling party lawmakers from the region have started holding confabulations among themselves over the possibility of floating a new regional party in order to retain their seats in the ensuing general polls.
A Congress veteran from Seemandhra on Thursday told some reporters here that some of them were actively considering the proposal to float a new regional party in support of Samaikyandhra to cash in on the ongoing agitation in their region.
According to him, what had prompted them to formulate this plan was the recent survey commissioned by chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s camp over the electoral fortunes of the Congress in Seemandhra.
“The survey revealed that people of Seemandhra are very much enraged by the Congress party’s decision to bifurcate AP. The survey predicted a complete rout for the party in Seemandhra. The Congress vote share in the region had come down to 10 percent from 34 percent in the aftermath of the bifurcation decision,” he said.
The leader claimed that they placed the results of the survey before AK Antony committee the other day in Delhi.
“We clearly told the committee that bifurcation of the state will bury the party in Seemandhra. But, our repeated requests fell on deaf ears,” he said.
After fully convinced that their party high command is in no mood to rethink its decision, some of the Seemandhra leaders are of the opinion that whoever revolts against the Congress high command at this juncture would be treated as heroes in Seemandhra.
Hence, some of the legislators from Seemandhra are contemplating quitting the party in support of United Andhra in the coming days.
However, they are likely to take this extreme step only after Antony committee submits its report on the concerns raised by Seemandhra people to the AICC leadership and the Centre initiates the process of formation of T-state.
In fact, Congress MLA Routhu Suryaprakash Rao (Rajahmundry) recently prophesied that a new regional party might take birth to fight for keeping the state intact. Interestingly, Kamalapuram MLA G Veerasiva Reddy is also repeatedly saying that there would be major changes in the political scene of Seemandhra after the completion of the ongoing Parliament session.
Meanwhile, Congress veteran Gade Venkata Reddy alleged that his party high command had committed a blunder by deciding to accord statehood to Telangana.