New Delhi, January 07: With the Telangana discussions ending in a deadlock on Tuesday, the Centre set rolling the process of wider consultations with various political parties and groups from Andhra Pradesh. The main aim was to bring some kind of reconciliation among the warring factions before taking a decision on the creation of a new state.
As a sequel to Tuesday’s meeting, home minister P Chidamabram met representatives of political parties and the Joint Action Committee (JAC) separately to elicit their views.
The committee stands for a united Andhra. The idea behind meeting both the groups individually was to discuss the contours of a possible mechanism to address the statehood issue, a home ministry source said.
Although most of the political parties and the JAC stuck to their stated stands while reacting after the meeting, it is reliably learnt that the Centre was mulling over setting up an experts’ committee to study the Telengana issue in its entirety.
Well-placed government sources said the divide within the cabinet came out in the open even when talks with the Andhra parties were underway. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee reportedly expressed his displeasure on the manner in which his cabinet colleague Chidambaram handled the Telangana issue.
The sources pointed out that Mukherjee categorically told his party colleagues that the situation in Andhra was not “assessed properly”. However, Congress sources said prime minister Manmohan Singh and party chief Sonia Gandhi had kept Mukherjee “in the loop”.
—Agencies