Telangana bytes: 'A decision too late'

Even as the Congress claimed credit for the decision to form Telangana state, other parties on Tuesday gave mixed reactions with Bharatiya Janata Party claiming it would have formed the state during NDA rule but for opposition from a key ally while the Left cautioned that this may spur more such demands.

Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K Chandrasekhar Rao, spearheading the agitation for the separate state since long, welcomed the Congress Working Committee decision to form a separate Telangana state.

Senior BJP leader L K Advani said "as far as we are concerned, our party is concerned, if Telangana was not formed when we had formed three new states it was only because of our respecting one of our coalition partners. Otherwise we would have done it even then".

He was referring to the objection from Telugu Desam Party, which was supporting the NDA government, to the formation of Telangana.

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Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat said statehood for Telangana will spur such demands in other parts of the country.

"The central government will have to take the responsibility to see that there is no further division of states whether it is West Bengal or anywhere else," he said.

"It should be made clear that you cannot go on having an endless division of a state or creation of new states," Karat added.

D Raja (CPI), termed the decision as "too late" and said his party had agreed to a separate Telangana "after indepth discussion and considering and exhausting all options".

"All regions of Andhra Pradesh should take this decision in a brotherly manner without any hostility or bitterness," he said.

Raja hastened to add that as a matter of principle, the Left is not in favour of creating smaller states but Telangana is a big region and the agitation for a separate state had been going on there for long.

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Shiv Sena reacted sharply to the decision. "We regret the decision to divide Andhra Pradesh. We are for a united Maharashtra (an apparent reference to demand for Vidarbha state) and there is no question of any decision," Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said.

Though Shiv Sena is the oldest ideological ally of BJP, the two differ on Telangana and Vidarbha. While BJP supports both, Shiv Sena is opposed to them.

Welcoming the decision on Telangana, Lok Janskati Party leader Ramvilas Paswan expressed the hope that the government will also create states like Bundelkhand, Vidarbha and Purvanchal. "LJP is in favour of smaller states," he said.

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Attributing Congress' nod for creation of separate Telangana state to the "sustained struggle by people", Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday alleged Congress had dithered on the issue for long and conceded it only ahead of elections.

While welcoming any forward movement on Telangana, Modi also raised doubts over the "intent" of Congress-led UPA government over sticking to its stand on the issue this time around, citing repeated "dilly-dallying" in the past.

"Due to the power of people, Congress is forced to do in the last few days what it had shied away from doing in the last 9 years on Telangana," Modi said in an open letter to the people of Andhra Pradesh.

"Instead of facing the people of Andhra Pradesh all these years, Congress hid behind committees and reports. Will they apologise to the people of AP on this"? Modi said addressing the people as "dear brothers and sisters from all regions of Andhra Pradesh".

"Congress' conduct on Telangana has neither been transparent nor consistent. The decision, which comes a few months before elections, has political colours," said the BJP's election campaign committee chief who is viewed as the saffron party's most likely candidate for the prime ministership.

"Friends, Congress party that won in 2004 on the promise of Telangana, has played cynical games with the aspirations and sentiments of the people for nine long years".

"Now, at a time when there are only a few months left before the people of this country vote again, Congress party is rushing to announce Telangana. This raises serious concerns about the seriousness and intentions of Congress," Modi said in the letter.

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Meanwhile, the YSR Congress Party has termed the decision on separate statehood for Telangana by both Congress as "undemocratic and anti-people" and threatened to launch a mass movement against it.

Two former MLAs, Jaleel Khan and Adusumilli Jaya Prakashc of the YSR Congress Party alleged the decision is "the conspiracy of a foreigner to divide and rule the people of this nation".

The people of coastal Andhra Pradesh have not accepted the "unilateral decion" by Congress, they claimed.

Alleging that Union ministers, MPs and ministers from Andhra Pradesh "sold out" and lost their individuality, adding Congress leaders were responsible for what they termed a "tragic" decision.

They demanded people's representatives of Congress should resign or else the people would teach them a lesson.

They announced the YSR Congress Party would begin a mass movement against the decision on Telangana.