TDP's knock-out punch

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: The ruling Congress party in Andhra Pradesh finds itself on the mat even as the general elections are just about four months away. The principal opposition Telugu Desam Party has delivered a virtual knock-out punch on the Congress by declaring its support for the formation of a separate Telangana state. More than anyone else, the TDP's support for Telangana will hurt the ruling party badly, if not maul it in the next elections. It's now a do-or-die situation for the Congress which rode to power in 2004 with the promise of delivering the Telangana state – a promise it failed to keep in the last four-and-a-half years. The indecisiveness on its part on Telangana will cost the Congress dearly in the next election, at least in this region where the number of Assembly seats has gone up from 107 to 119 after the delimitation. With all the major opposition parties – TDP, CPI, CPM and TRS – joining hands against the Congress, the ruling party will find the going extremely tough. Now, it is left with no other option except to take a policy decision on Telangana -- immediately. Even if the bloody 1969 agitation for Telangana is ignored, nobody can spare the Congress for raising the separate statehood bogey yet again in 1999. As Telangana became the TDP's citadel, the Congress desperately wanted to counter the then ruling party and hence raised the demand for bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. Congress legislators from the region formed a separate forum and the party was forced to constitute the Telangana Regional Congress Co-ordination Committee to placate the separatists in its ranks. The Telangana Congress Legislators' Forum passed a resolution demanding formation of Telangana and got it endorsed by the then opposition leader Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who is now the state chief minister. In 2001, K Chandrasekhar Rao quit the TDP to float the Telangana Rashtra Samiti espousing the cause of separate statehood. The BJP, though in favour of separate Telangana, had to remain quiet as it was in the company of TDP, which was a strong votary of a unified state. Thus, the Congress rode piggy back on the TRS holding the Telangana flag aloft and promising to carve out a separate state. Once in power, the Congress that headed a coalition government at the Centre got a three-member committee appointed, under the chairmanship of Pranab Mukherjee, to look into the Telangana demand. The committee eventually remained a farce, to say the least, and the Congress couldn't deliver Telangana. Much water has flown since 2004 and things have now come to such a stage where everybody is ready for Telangana except the Congress, the main proponent. Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee chief D Srinivas admits the TDP decision would put his party under pressure on Telangana. "As the national party, it is only the Congress that can deliver Telangana. But we can't act in haste as a lot of issues are involved. The TDP has nothing to lose by announcing its support for a separate state," Srinivas observed. The pro-Telangana lobbyists in the state Congress have, however, started making enough noices on the separate state issue in the run-up to the elections.