The decision to form a separate Telangana was not an easy one. The speed with which it was taken when the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh were less than a year away took even state Congress leaders from Seemandhra region by surprise.

 

Congress President Sonia Gandhi is known to be a leader who takes time to decide things and Congress is basically known as a party having the philosophy of “thanda kar ke khao”—decide matters very slowly that sometimes there is no need even for a decision.

 

This being the case, the decision of the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision making body of the party, was bound to be taken with shock and surprise by all concerned.

Only a few years back, Congress party’s then troubleshooter Pranab Mukherjee had remarked that formation of a separate state is not like making an instant coffee.

 

Leaders from Seemandhra region, who have lorded over the undivided Andhra Pradesh for most of the time, never thought that they would have to lose control of Hyderabad so soon. Now the politics in the state is expected to revolve over the control of Hyderabad which is seen as the hen that lays the golden eggs and therefore no one want to lose it.

 

The demand of the Seemandhra leaders to turn Hyderabad into a Union Territory and a second capital of the nation appears to be a case of turning the clock back. The control of Hyderabad is at the heart of the separate Telangana movement.

 

Politically, Gandhi has taken the tough call on the separate state at a time when the undivided

 

Andhra Pradesh, which helped propel Congress to power at the Centre in 2004 and 2009, was in shambles for the party.

Andhra had been the only major state where the Congress is in power on its own since 2004 and therefore there was need to save the bastion in whichever way it can. The state has 42 Lok Sabha seats. A Sanskrit saying goes that when faced with the danger of complete loss and destruction of his property, a wise man gives away half to retain the rest. Gandhi’s strategy appears to be the same as regards the key state is concerned.

 

The party was at the receiving end in Telangana region for want of a decision on a separate state while in the rest of Andhra Pradesh the juggernaut of Y S Jaganmoan Reddy was rolling despite the YSR Congress leader continuing to be in jail.

 

One must also be noted that while taking the decision, Congress has gone out of the way to ignore the Telanganga Rashtra Samiti and its leader K Chandrasekhar Rao, whose single point agenda was statehood for Telangana. Though it was Rao, who was the lone leader who brought the issue of Telangana to the centrestage, Congress strategy appears to be to ensure that only Sonia is seen as the ‘deliverer’ for the masses of the backward region, which has a rich cultural heritage.

 

A section in the Congress also attributes the quick decision on Telangana to the emergence of the Narendra Modi factor. Congress has been strategizing for the next Lok Sabha elections and is going all out to ensure as to how the BJP will remain friendless and how its area of influence gets diminished.

Prime facie, the Congress may be dismissing any threat from Modi, but deep within its strategists think that the controversial Gujarat Chief Minister should be stopped in his tracks at the earliest at a time when the craze for a ‘strong’ leader seems to be growing.

 

With the decision on Telangana, Congress wants to ensure that BJP does not get a foothold in the region while in the rest of Andhra, the BJP is virtually non-existent. While YSR Congress is expected to make much headway in the Seemandhra region, the understanding in the Congress is that Jaganmohan Reddy cannot afford to support the BJP and willy-nilly will have to back Congress at the Centre. The problem for the BJP in the South is that it has a very little presence there except in Karnataka where it was in power not so long ago.

 

But there is also a growing fear in a section of the Congress that the Telangana card may backfire. This was because the CWC decision has opened a Pandora’s box with umpteen demands pouring for formation of new states ranging from the northeast to the north as also in the west.Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, which has nothing to write home about on the governance front in West Bengal, has got an issue in the demand for Gorkhaland. The party, which till the last year

was the second largest constituent of the UPA, wants a complete ban on formation of new states. The coming to the fore of the Bodoland issue has created another headache for the Congress government in Assam. It is also unclear as to how the demand for splitting Uttar Pradesh into four states will pan out.

 

The Gandhi-Nehru family’s dominance in Indian politics was largely related to its influence in Uttar Pradesh having 80 Lok Sabha seats. The dynamics of politics in smaller states is different. The decision on Telangana has also given a boost to the demand for formation of separate Vidarbha. A section in the Congress feels that a separate Vidarbha would mean further weakening the Congress in the rest of Maharashtra, where Sharad Pawar’s NCP is trying to raise its influence by hook or by crook. While Congress strategists have made it clear that it does not intend to create any new state along with Telangana, the ruling party sooner or later will

have to agree for the setting up of a second State Reorganisation Commission to go into the demands. Only time will tell whether the Telangana gamble has paid off for the Congress or not. –

 

PTI Feature