Andhra CM in a tight spot over Telangana row

Home Minister P Chidambaram on Monday informed media personnel that the Centre was referring the issue of creation of a separate state of Telangana back to the Andhra Pradesh assembly to rebuild a consensus.

The Andhra Pradesh assembly had passed a resolution in January last year, seeking deletion of Clause 14(F) from the Presidential Order for the purpose.

The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs has decided to refer back the resolution to the assembly, Chidambaram said.

The AP assembly is currently in a state of limbo as 112 of its legislators have resigned and 11 ministers are abstaining from work. In such a scenario, the Centre's move has put Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy in a tight spot.

While the Lok Sabha speaker and the Rajya Sabha chairman are yet to decide on the resignations tendered by Members of Parliament from Telangana, the miffed legislators stayed away on the first day of the Monsoon session on Monday.

When queried on the issue, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari pointed out that a final decision was up to the Speaker and it would be unfair on his part to comment.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj claimed that the MPs' resignations had exposed the government's adamant attitude on the issue, particularly when majority of them were from the ruling Congress.