‘ Rayala Telangana’ adds twist to division of AP

The proposal to merge two Rayalaseema districts with the 10 Telangana districts to form Rayala Telangana seems to have replaced Hyderabad as the most contentious issue in the state’s impending division. The CWC will meet on Tuesday to decide the final shape of the new states.

The Congress is being accused of bringing in from nowhere the Rayala Telangana proposition as a means to avoid biting the bullet on the state’s division.

There is stiff resistance to the Rayala Telangana proposal particularly from the BJP, which will play a decisive role in the state’s formation once the Centre decides to introduce the bill to that effect in Parliament. “The role of local stakeholders, like the TRSS, is insignificant if the division is in the form of Rayala Telangana. But the BJP’s support is crucial for the bill to get passed given the opposition to division from national players such as Mulayam and Mamata,” said a Congress leader from the Telangana region.

The Congress then will have two options: proceed with Rayala Telangana, put the ball in the BJP’s court and blame the party for scuttling the state’s division if it refuses to support the bill, and two, drop the proposal and restrict itself to formation of Telangana with 10 districts.

Party sources said Union minister Ghulam Nabi Azad was the chief architect of Rayala Telangana, which, he argued, would help in marginalising the TRS on the one side, and the Telugu Desam and YSR Congress on the other side.