Considered the staunchest supporter of the cause of united Andhra Pradesh, the Vijayawada Congress MP Lagadapati Rajagopal is said to be contemplating leaving the ruling party over the bifurcation issue.
Lagadapati, an industrialist turned politician, has tried all methods to convince the party high command to reverse its decision to divide the state but to no avail.
He had even petitioned to the Delhi High Court, seeking a direction to the Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to accept his resignation from the Lok Sabha. However, he was forced to withdraw the petition.
After exhausting all options and in the wake of mounting public pressure from his constituency, the flamboyant MP is now planning to quit the party.
However, it is not clear what he would do in future.
He is keeping the cards close to his chest. When the activists of united AP confronted him at Jaggayyapet, Lagadapati revealed that he would leave the Congress soon. He also said that he would announce his plan of action in a week.
The political circles are curiously watching his next move.
It remains to be seen whether he would launch his own political party to fight for integrated state or join hands with the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy who is also said to gearing up to chart his own political course.
The Vijayawada MP had recently said that if introduction of the Telangana bill in Parliament is delayed one month, then the state's division can be stopped.
"If we can manage to prevent the bill from coming to the Parliament in one month, then the process will be kept on the back burner for ever," he had said.
His logic is that if the Telangana Bill fails to get the Parliament approval in the coming winter session, then there is no way it can come up before the next general elections, scheduled to be held in April/May, 2014.
After the winter session, the Parliament will meet again only in February for the vote-on-account budget and it becomes impossible for the government to push an important bill like new state formation when the elections are round the corner.
