T Bill: BJP to corner Congress in parliament on Seemandhra concerns

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Oct 9, 2013: The BJP seems to be all set to corner the ruling Congress in the parliament over what is being called as ‘unilateral’ way of bifurcating Andhra Pradesh without addressing the concerns, doubts and apprehensions of public in Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra, regions, which have been witnessing unrelenting protests for more than 70 days.

 The national party is also gearing up to adapt a new strategy in riot stricken Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra to secure as many as seats in run up to the 2014 general elections. BJP had 3 MPs from this region when the party had alliance with TD in 1999.

Having understood that ignoring Seemandhra region having 25 loksabha seats will be a grave mistake, BJP is now likely to take a new slogan in this region targeting Congress for the present state of mess for going ahead unilaterally without addressing the concerns of the public in both the regions.   

A recent visit by the delegation of BJP Leaders from Rayalseema and coastal Andhra made the national leaders think about prospects in Seemandhra and the national party is most likely to support the Telangana bill when it comes to the parliament only after the concerns of Seemandgra public are addressed properly.  It was also clearly evident when BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi ended his power packed speech at Hyderabad in August by saying Jai Telangana and Jai Seemandhra. BJP will also very soon constitute a separate state level committee for Seemandhra region.

 Around 70 leaders from these two regions had visited Delhi in the first week and met all their important leaders, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitely, LK Advani and also party national president Rajnath Singh. The delegation felt that they were successful in bringing the concerns, apprehensions of the public in Seemandhra region into the notice of their central leadership and also the need as a national party to raise these issues in Delhi.

Remember, BJP divided three states during its six years of rule and done it very smoothly, the leaders said. “Congress is going ahead unilaterally without addressing the concerns of Seemandhra public. I strongly feel that as how the issues, recommendations of the BJP were added to the land acquisition bill, our party national leaders would definitely see that issues of Seemandhra be debated, discussed and added to the Telangana bill before it is passed in the parliament. We are confident that our party central leadership would ensure that justice to Seemandhra whereas Congress has just neglected the region and ignored the interests of the public in this part of Andhra Pradesh,” said BJP national executive member Kambhampati Haribabu.

The BJP delegation from Seemandhra has also submitted a detailed note to the party central leadership on the issues of Seemandhra that are to be raised in the parliament.

“We feel that as a national party it will be through BJP that justice would be done for Seemandhra during the bifurcation. We will be again visit Delhi to meet the national leaders sometime this month end. We will also meet our prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi to seek his support for Seemandhra region,” said BJP state secretary, Bandaru Ranga Mohan Rao.