Mamata berates UPA for "messing up" Telengana

Mamata Banerjee today hit out at the UPA government for "messing up" the Telangana issue and said the move to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh before the Lok Sabha election by the outgoing government, which had already been rejected by people, was not acceptable.

Describing the decision to create Telangana state as one guided by election arithmetic only, Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, said the central government had been mired in a mess-up.

"Those who are rejected by the people, howsoever they may try to deceive the people, will not be acceptable. By trying to create Telangana, they have only got mired in a mess-up. Who is saying what I fail to understand," she said.

Banerjee was referring to yesterday's unprecedented pandemonium in the Lok Sabha marked by fisticuffs and pepper spraying during the tabling of the Telengana Bill while speaking at a state government-sponsored programme "Mati Utsav" here in Burdwan district.

She said that the Centre's move just before the election would not be acceptable to the people and added that "acceptability does not come before the election. It has to be secured every day, every minute and every second. This is called accountability".

She flaunted her government's success in maintaining peace in Darjeeling hills which saw a prolonged unrest over the demand for creation of a separate state of Gorkhaland. She also cited restoration of peace in the former Maoist stronghold of Jangalamahal and said the twin successes were now a model before the country.

"To achieve this, there was no need to fight with each other or spray on eyes or resort to throwing chairs. It has to be done with love and intelligence. You have to keep that in mind," she asserted.

YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu had met Banerjee recently seeking her support against the bifurcation of Andhra Pradsh.