A day after his bitter face-off with the party bosses in Delhi, the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy maintained that he was not at all convinced about the rationale for dividing Andhra Pradesh.
"I have told my party leaders what I have always felt. The division of the state will lead to several intractable problems. We can have all-round progress only if the state remained united," Kiran told reporters in Delhi on Saturday.
Earlier yesterday he had a one-on-one meeting with the AICC General Secretary in-charge of AP Digvijay Singh where he was told to fall in line on the bifurcation issue or face the consequences.
However, the Chief Minister made it clear to the party bosses that he was opposing the division of the state and not the central leadership and that he would never preside over the splitting of AP under any circumstances.
"My intention is not to hurt the sentiments of the people of Telangana. But, the division will cause damage to Telangana as well. There will arise so many problems in terms of sharing of river waters, power, revenues, besides the status of Hyderabad, that it becomes impossible to resolve them," Kiran told the media.
He made it clear that his fight for keeping the state united does not mean he is waging a battle against the people of Telangana or bent upon hurting their sentiments.
It is very clear that Kiran is not ready to budge from his pro-united AP position despite the efforts by the Congress central leadership to rein him in.
