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Overwhelming mood is for maintaining united A.P.: TDP

Neena Vyas

Agitations in all the regions of the State must end, say TDP leaders
“No enthusiastic support for TRS in polls”

NEW DELHI: Currently in Andhra Pradesh, the political spectrum is a blur and party high commands have overnight become powerless to get their MLAs and MPs toe the party-line, whatever it may be. The division is complete on just one issue: support for and opposition to the demand for a separate State of Telangana to be carved out of Andhra Pradesh.

Stating this here on Tuesday, four MPs of the Telugu Desam Party – Naramalli Sivaprasad (Chittoor), Modugula Venugopala Reddy ( Narasaraopet), Kristappa Nimmala (Hindupur) and Narayana Konakalla Rao (Machilipatnam) – said that political parties, cutting across the spectrum, made a mistake and failed to judge the mood of the people. The overwhelming mood was for maintaining the unity of the State, they said.

The four of them had earlier in the day stormed into the well of the Lok Sabha. Later, they spoke to journalists at the TDP parliamentary party office. “Tempers must be allowed to cool and agitations in all the regions of the State must end. Maybe, the government at the Centre should set up a committee to assess public opinion on this important issue,” said Mr. Sivaprasad, who is the chief whip of the party. “We represent the people and are here in the Lok Sabha to voice the feelings of the people,” he added.

Just as in the Congress, in the TDP too MPs and MLAs were today divided along regional lines, not along party lines, the MPs pointed out. Of the 6 TDP MPs in the Lok Sabha, two who come from the Telangana region did not join the protest in the Lok Sabha and they were not part of the group that spoke to journalists. They said that the Congress MP Jaganmohan Reddy’s show of solidarity with the TDP MPs in the well of the House was in fact no support for the TDP, but support for the cause of a united Andhra Pradesh. It was no longer a party issue.

Just as the MPs wanted the Centre to assure the people that nothing would be done without taking them into confidence and assessing their feelings, they have also represented to their own party leader Chandrababu Naidu.

Mr. Venugopala Reddy and the other TDP MPs also pointed out that for two successive Lok Sabha and Assembly elections the people had not shown enthusiastic support for Telangana Rashtra Samithi led by K. Chandrasekhara Rao. “In 2009 the TRS won only 10 assembly segments of a total of 119 in the Telangana region. He has two MPs and neither of them has been seen this winter session of Parliament. Where is the support for the TRS?”

They also pointed out that when Mr. Chandrasekhara Rao undertook a fast-unto-death, “it was the “media that had played it up as a big event.” The “drama” was enacted as political support on the ground was missing. To bolster their point, the four TDP MPs pointed out the TRS did not contest the recent greater Hyderabad local elections, demonstrating that the Telangana idea was not inspiring people even in that region. Andhra Pradesh as one unit was developing rather well. Breakup of the State could prove to be disastrous.

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