The political slugfest in Andhra Pradesh over the issue of statehood for Telangana looked set to get murkier with yet another group of Congress MPs joining the battle of succession for the legacy of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. A group of Dalit leaders,led by Amalapuram MP G V Harsha Kumar and including Bapatla MP Panabaka Lakshmi,were learnt to be backing a Dalit organisation,Mala Mahanadu,to launch a separate Andhra (Jai Andhra) movement from Thursday,which would support the creation of a separate state of Telangana on the plea that it would help Malas of Andhra (who dominate the coastal region). As it is,the Congress in Andhra Pradesh looked split into three groups: one group demanding a separate Telangana state; another supporting Jaganmohan Reddy who favours samayaka (united) Andhra; and the third which seeks to piggyback on a Dalit organisation to espouse the cause of Jai Andhra that was set to be a coastal Andhra affair given the dominance of Malas in that region. In the fourth category falls Vijayawada MP L Rajagopal who was seeking to emerge as the champion of samayaka (united) Andhra,as against Jagan who was believed to have fallen out of the Congress high commands favour. Harsha Kumar,a known critic of the late YSR,and Eluru MP K S Rao had a heated exchange of words in Defence Minister A K Antonys chamber on Tuesday when the Amalapuram MP demanded disciplinary action against Jagan for joining TDP MPs in raising slogans for united Andhra in the Lok Sabha. On Wednesday,K Sivaji,head of the breakaway Mala Mahanadu addressed a press conference at Harsha Kumars official residence in New Delhi and announced that his organisation would start a state-wide agitation from Thursday to form Jai Andhra. Among the two SC groups of Malas and Madigas,the latter,dominant in Telangana region,are in a numerical majority in Andhra Pradesh. If Telangana is created as a separate state,Malas would dominate the bifurcated Andhra. The Congress high command was,however,learnt to be disinclined to intervene,even as the sharply divided state unit fought over the political sweepstakes in Andhra Pradesh,which threatened to further exacerbate the situation and also split the Congresss Dalit votebank in the state. Congress president Sonia Gandhi was expected to clear the air in her speech at the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) meeting,which was scheduled on Wednesday. The meeting was,however,deferred to Monday. MPs from Telangana and non-Telangana regions,in the mean time,continued their pressure tactics calling on top leaders with their respective demands. MPs from non-Telangana regions met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding a formal statement from the government that Telangana would not be created without the state Assembly passing a resolution to this effect. But the PM gave us no such assurance, MP K S Rao told The Indian Express. On Monday,when these MPs had called on Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee,he was said to have pulled out two sheets of paper a copy of Home Minister P Chidambarams statement on Telangana last Thursday and a copy of the Congress manifesto in Andhra Pradesh Assembly election in 2004. What is the difference,you tell me. The Home Minister only repeated what the party had already stated, a visibly upset Mukherjee was learnt to have told those MPs. Meanwhile,a delegation of MPs from Telangana region also called on Mukherjee who told them that they had no reason to complain as they had got what they wanted,said sources. Mukherjee asked them to exercise restraint as tempers were already running high in Andhra Pradesh.
