All eyes are now riveted on the President Pranab Mukherjee who holds the key in deciding the future of Andhra Pradesh.
Whether to give the go-ahead for bifurcation or to keep the state united, it is in the hands of the President.
There is a desperate attempt by those opposing the division of the state to impress upon the President the need to keep the state united.
What has added hopes among the integrationists is the fact that Pranab is personally said to be in favour of united AP.
He is known to oppose the division of the linguistic state and his opposition to the demand in West Bengal for a separate state of Gorkhaland is very well known in political circles.
The question now is whether Pranab will step in to keep the Telangana bill pending till a consensus could be emerged in Andhra Pradesh or till all the concerns and apprehensions of the people of Seemandhra are properly addressed.
The Seemandhra leaders are hopeful that the President will insist on following the "constitutional procedure" of getting a resolution passed in the respective Assembly for creation of a new state as was done in the recent cases of Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
Soon after his arrival in Hyderabad, the President gave audience to leaders of Congress and TDP. Seemandhra TDP leaders and Telangana congress leaders met him and put their cases.
The TDP leaders requested Pranab to keep the state undivided, “if providing equal justice to both the regions is not possible”. The TDP leaders explained to him how the UPA government is proceeding on the issue in a “unilateral manner”.
It was then the turn of Telangana Congress leaders to explain Pranab various issues involved in taking forward the bifurcation process.
YSRCP chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy led a delegation of party leaders to the President and after the meeting, Jagan left without speaking to the waiting media persons. Party leaders M.V. Mysoora Reddy and D.A.Somayajulu told reporters that their party is not for division of the state and prayed the President to take a decision that is in tune with the Constitution of India.
Former Chief Minister N.T. Ramarao’s widow Lakshmi Parvathi told reports after meeting Pranab that it is only the President who can stop the outrageous bifurcation of the state.
Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy also met Pranab soon after his arrival at the Raj Bhavan and discussed a range of issues with the President.
As per the constitutional procedure, only the President has the authority to stop the process initiated by the central government on formation of any new state.
The Seemandhra leaders are pinning their hopes on Article 3 of the constitution under which the President can act independently of the government.
The question being raised in the political circles is what happens if the State Assembly rejects the draft Telangana bill.
Given the numbers in the Assembly in favour of Seemandhra region, it is impossible for the Telangana resolution to be passed if put to voting. In that case, the President can exercise his discretion to put the process on hold. It is only the President who has to refer the bill to the State Assembly.
Though the union government is not bound by the opinion of the Assembly, the President has all the powers to step in as per constitutional provisions, it is argued. It is said that Pranab Mukherjee has also enquired from experts about the constitutional position in the event of Assembly rejecting the Telangana resolution.
The UPA has made its intentions very clear and in fact it has speeded up the the process of bifurcation.
As a seasoned politician, he has a thorough understanding about the Telangana issue and had dealt with it when he headed an AICC Committee on Telangana that elicited ciews from all political parties on the statehood demand.
Personally, he is known to be opposed to the bifurcation on the ground that it would trigger similar demands from various regions across the country. He is particularly aware of the possible consequences in West Bengal, his home state where the Gorkhaland agitation has been revived with vigour after the July 30 announcement on Telangana.
