The Telangana Bill

YSR Congress president Jaganmohan Reddy said that his party would not allow the assembly to debate the Telangana draft bill when it reconvenes on January 3 as it would signify acceptance of the bifurcation of the state. “Let the assembly first pass a resolution in favor of keeping the state united. Other issues including the Telangana bill can be discussed later. A debate without the united state resolution is not possible,” Jagan said while addressing a press conference after meeting President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Nilayam here on Thursday evening.

Jagan and his MLAs submitted affidavits in favor of an united Andhra Pradesh in addition to a detailed note on the opinions of the YSRCP legislators to the President. “A total of 31 elected representatives including 23 MLAs (17 of YSRCP and six others), 3 MPs including me and 5 MLCs submitted affidavits to the President,” he said. Criticizing both chief minister and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu for not doing enough to keep the state united, Jagan said the CM while projecting himself as an integrationist, is forcing the government departments to expedite the division.

“About 56 government departments have been asked to prepare detailed notes on division and post division issues. The CM has directed officials to set aside routine administration work and instead focus on providing information to the Centre so that the division of the state can materialize as early as possible,” the YSR party chief alleged.

Jagan said that speaker N Manohar is uninformed when it comes to procedures involving bifurcation of a state. “After tabling the draft Bill, the speaker now wants to know how other states were bifurcated. Is it not silly?” said Jagan who also criticized the speaker for touring Lucknow at this juncture. Jagan requested MLAs of other political parties to keep politics aside and instead follow their conscience and submit affidavits to the President in favour of an united state. Earlier, YS Jagan faced the ire of Telangana activists who tried to halt his convoy while it was returning from Rashtrapati Nilayam after meeting Pranab. The activists were taken into custody.

Denisha Sahadevan