The Centre on Saturday stepped up the consultation process on the contentious Telangana demand by holding discussions with Andhra Pradesh Governor E S L Narasimhan and Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy but dismissed the talk of President's rule in the state.
Narasimhan met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram separately this morning during which he is understood to have briefed them about the situation in the Telangana region where the strike has entered its 27th day.
As speculation mounted about a spell of central rule in the state, the Governor, a former Intelligence Bureau chief, said after a meeting with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, “there is no no question of imposing President's rule.
“There is a popularly-elected government and it will function,” he said.
Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kiran Reddy also spoke in a similar vein.
“Why should it head (towards President's rule)? There is no no question,” Azad asked, while the Chief Minister wanted to know: “Why should President's rule come. How does it come? When should President's rule be imposed? What are the parameters?”.
He wondered why President's rule has become a “fancy word”. The Centre would take appropriate measures to resolve the crisis, he told reporters.
Senior Ministers--Pranab Mukherjee, A K Antony, P Chidambaram and Ghulam Nabi Azad--began their consultations by meeting five of their cabinet colleagues from the state separately to get their views on the Telangana issue, which has virtually divided the Congress on regional lines.
Petroleum Minister S Jaipal Reddy, Tribal Affairs Minister Kishore Chandra Deo, Minister of State for Textiles Panabaka Lakshmi, Minister of State for HRD D Purandeswari and Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju met the ministers and gave their “frank” assessment of the situation.
The ministers also met PCC chief Bosta Satyanarayana and former PCC chief D Srinivas.
Azad said the consultation within the Congress would resume on Monday and that the process would take some more time. He said he cannot give a time line as to when the consultation process within the Congress would end. “I cannot give a time line. We met nine leaders from Andhra Pradesh on Saturday and we will be meeting some others on Monday. The process is on. It will take some time,” he told reporters.
Asked whether the process would involve leaders from other parties, the Congress General Secretary said a decision to this effect has not yet been taken.
After the meeting, Kiran Reddy said the Centre would soon resolve the statehood issue in an “amicable” manner that would “satisfy the aspirations of the people”.
Grappling with the pro-Telangana agitation, Reddy rushed to the capital along with his deputy Damodar Rajanarasimha and held consultations with the senior Ministers.
He briefed the leaders about the situation in the state in the wake of the agitation and gave his opinion on the separate statehood demand. “I have given my opinion. I said the aspirations of the people of Andhra Pradesh should be satisfied. Soon there would be an amicable solution that would be beneficial to the people of the state,” he told reporters here
