The UPA government's surprise announcement of an all-party meeting on Telangana statehood issue has two clear objectives.
First, to corner the Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu and force him to come out with a clear-cut stand on the issue.
Second, to outsmart the main rival BJP at national level. Though the saffron party has been steadfastly supporting the separate Telangana state demand, there have been signals, of late, suggesting a change of mind under the influence of Chandrababu Naidu.
There have been indications that BJP might block the Telangana bill in the Parliament under the pretext of ensuring justice for the people of Seemandhra.
The decision to call for an all-party meeting is like a single shot targeting two birds.
The Congress leadership feels that the doublespeak of both TDP and BJP would be exposed at the meeting.
Even the YSR Congress Party has also made a U-turn on the division issue and is now fully backing the Samaikyandhra movement.
The UPA leadership wants to make sure that there are no hurdles in the way of passing the Telangana bill in the winter session of the Parliament.
Ironically, it was Chandrababu Naidu who demanded convening of all-party meeting to discuss the issues arising out of the bifurcation.
Barely two days ago, he made this demand and it is amusing for him to back out after the Centre agreed for the demand.
Though the senior Seemandhra TDP leader payyavula Kesav has said his party would not attend the all-party meeting, such a move would certainly show the TDP in poor light in the eyes of the people of the state. If TDP stays away from the meeting, it would be seen as an act of betrayal by the people of Telangana. It will also not go down well in Seemandhra because the party would lose an opportunity to articulate its suggestions on how to ensure justice for the region.
In a way, Naidu is caught in yet another dilemma over the meeting, likely to be convened early next month.
The Centre would send letters to all the eight recognised political parties in the state to send one representative each to the meeting, so that their official stand could be recorded. Before the all-party meeting, these parties will be required to submit in writing their views on the terms of conditions of the Group of Ministers (GoM), constituted by the Centre to work out the modalities of the state’s division. It remains to be seen how Naidu will wriggle out of this tricky situation.
