The Congress high command’s decision to bifurcate the state seems to have caused a vertical split between state ministers and Union ministers from Seemandhra.
A day after the AICC leadership had dropped enough hints that it was leaning towards formation of Telangana, state ministers from Seemandhra started blaming the Union ministers from their regions for the situation, saying that had the ministers acted in time and brought pressure on the AICC leadership, the present situation might not have arisen. According to sources, the state ministers expressed their displeasure at Union ministers’ lack of initiative when they met at the residence of Union minister Kavuri Sambasiva Rao in Delhi on Saturday.
Ganta Srinivasa Rao, Sake Sailajanath and Kondru Murali Mohan said the Union ministers failed to lobby at the high command level for keeping the state united. Some state ministers, in private talk with journalists, wondered at the absence of Union ministers V Kishore Chandra Deo, D Purandeswari and Killi Krupa Rani from the meeting held at AP Bhavan on Friday to chalk out an action plan on exerting pressure on the party leadership.
Rayala T Divides Seema Ministers
Even as blame game has begun between state and Union ministers over their respective failures to persuade their party high command to keep the state intact, another split is clearly visible among state ministers from the region.
The AICC leadership’s proposal to form a Rayala Telangana state by merging Kurnool and Anantapur districts of Rayalaseema with Telangana is the reason for this. If ministers from the other two districts (Kadapa and Chittoor) of Rayalaseema _ C.Ramachandraiah, Syed Mohammed Ahmadullah and Galla Aruna Kumari _ are opposing the proposal on the ground that splitting Rayalaseema would end the very existence of the region, ministers from Kurnool and Anantapur such as Kotla Jaya Surya Prakash Reddy, TG Venkatesh and Erasu Prathap Reddy are understood to be backing the move for forming Rayala Telangana encompassing Hyderabad.