After Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy’s two-day visit to Delhi and his meetings with members of the Congress core committee, including party president Sonia Gandhi, it is presumed that except for the Telangana question, there are no issues on which the leadership would need to relook at a change of guard in AP.
Sources say that a discussion was held on the Telangana issue; it is widely believed that the Congress will be under pressure to announce its stand on statehood once the Telugu Desam clarifies its position in the first week of September.
Incidentally, all Congress leaders believe that immediately after the end of the ongoing Parliament session, Mrs Gandhi will take a decision on Telangana — whether to grant statehood, or to offer a special package or even reject the bifurcation demand citing lack of consensus among political parties.
The Congress president has taken up the issue very recently, as part of the agenda at the monthly meetings of the UPA coordination committee, for deliberations and decisions, which means that the issue is being deliberated from a national angle.
The Chief Minister’s confidants believe that after his two-day visit to Delhi and the discussions he had with the high command, Mr Reddy will continue as CM until 2014 elections. It is also being interpreted as a sign that there will be no favourable decision on Telangana statehood. "After weighing various options, the high command has come to the conclusion that there will be more damage than good for the party if it effects a change of guard,” said a confidant of the CM.
During discussions, it is believed that the CM conveyed to the leadership that there will be no unrest in the region even if there is no announcement on statehood and that all Congress legislators are very much “under control” except for a few MPs from the region. He seems to have suggested that it is for the high command to take steps to tackle these MPs. He is reported to have told the leaders that if the Centre refuses the demand for statehood, a minimum of 15 to 20 Lok Sabha seats in favour of Congress all over the state is guaranteed.
If the Centre accedes to the demand, there will not be much of a favourable impact for the Congress as the TRS will take the credit for it, without merging with the Congress. The CM is believed to have told the leadership that if the Congress supports united AP, like the late Indira Gandhi, it will have a tremendous impact all over the state. With this message both TD and YSR Congress will lose steam. He assured them that his government will take the responsibility of keeping the law and order situation under control during the proposed Hyderabad March on September 30. Mr Reddy is believed to have told the high command that it should announce immediately its stand on Telangana without further delay.