Sonia summons Andhra CM, talks Telangana

The Congress is staring at yet another crisis in Andhra Pradesh following the threat by few MPs from Telangana to leave the party and join the TRS on the statehood demand. Aurangzeb Naqshbandi reports.

The Congress is staring at yet another crisis in Andhra Pradesh following the threat by few MPs from Telangana to leave the party and join the TRS on the statehood demand.

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The leaders have set a deadline of June 3 for the party to initiate steps to carve out a separate state of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh.

They said they would join the TRS on June 2 and work for the cause of Telangana. With their resignations, the number of Congress MPs from AP has come down to 29 out of the 42.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi had summoned Andhra Pradesh chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy to Delhi for an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the fallout and threat of resignations by these MPs and other leaders, including former state unit chief K Keshava Rao.

Sources said the much-delayed cabinet reshuffle in the state besides nominations to the Rajya Sabha also came up for discussion adding that Reddy and party general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, on their part, briefed Gandhi about the impact of such threats.

It is understood that in the meeting it was told that any move to initiate the process of the formation of Telangana at this stage when assembly elections are a year away, could backfire at the party in all the regions of the state.

At this moment, the leaders argued that all political parties are at a level playing field and if the move is given a go-ahead, the Congress will lose the advantage it had gained in the recent cooperative elections and that the TDP could be the eventual beneficiary in such a situation.

The meeting also discussed the probable candidates for induction in the state cabinet.

The leadership also discussed the names to replace AP Congress chief Botcha Satyanarayana who is serving as a cabinet minister in the state government.