New Delhi, Dec 15: With parties and the Andhra Pradesh cabinet deeply divided on the proposal for a separate Telangana, the state Assembly was today adjourned sine die following an uproar. The Central government said it could not allow a discussion in the Lok Sabha till the state Assembly passed a resolution on Telangana.
With the House adjourned, Andhra ministers who had threatened to resign said they would meet Governor N D Tiwari. They met Chief Minister K Rosaiah and told him of their decision to quit if the Centre did not clarify its stand on a separate Telangana state since no resolution had been passed in the Assembly. “I have asked them to wait till Tuesday afternoon. In the meantime, I shall convey their wishes to the Congress high command,” Rosaiah said.
In New Delhi, Law Minister Veerappa Moily said: “We want to take everybody on board.” Urging people not to act in panic, Moily said a “solution will be found”. He ruled out imposition of President’s rule in Andhra Pradesh and said there was no truth in reports that Rosaiah had been asked to quit or was resigning.
MPs from Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema, protesting against the proposed bifurcation, met Finance Minister and Leader of Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee for a “clarification” on Home Minister P Chidambaram’s statement on initiating the process for a separate Telangana.
“Mukherjee assured us that a resolution has to come from the state Assembly. Till then, there cannot be a discussion on the issue in Lok Sabha,” Congress MP K S Rao told reporters. He said the MPs told Mukherjee that the situation was “very grave” and delay in taking a decision would cause a “mental divide”.
The Congress echoed Mukherjee’s views when it said the Centre would take the next step only after the Assembly passes a resolution for Telangana. The party would then support it, AICC spokesman Shakeel Ahmed told reporters.
He said the party had “no objection” to a second States Reorganisation Commission. “If the government wants to formthe second SRC, we have no objection. But there should be consensus,” Ahmed said.
Meanwhile, Congress MPs and legislators from the Telangana region wrote a letter to party president Sonia Gandhi, thanking her for initiating the process to form a separate state. The letter signed by 15 MPs and 11 state ministers stated: “On behalf of the people of Telangana, we assure you, Madam, our unstinted support to the Congress party and to your leadership for this historic decision.”
In Hyderabad, Congress MLAs from Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra decided to mount pressure on MPs from the regions to quit their posts and fight against the proposed division of the state.
Meanwhile, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, who has made a U-turn on the issue, accused the Centre of announcing a “shocking” decision on Telangana and said the onus now lay with the Centre to find a solution.
Protests continued in Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra. There was tension in Vijayawada and elsewhere in Krishna district after the arrest of Congress MP L Rajagopal in Hyderabad. His followers took out rallies and staged sit-in protests across the city.
Shops, business establishments, banks and government offices remained closed and the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation suspended its services. Hundreds of passengers were stranded at the bus complex in the city and elsewhere in the district.
Two of the four students of Andhra University in Visakhapatnam, who have been on a fast-unto-death for the last three days, were admitted to a hospital after they fell ill. Protesters have been holding road blockades, rallies in Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema.
–Agencies