Grappling with the crisis over a separate Telangana, the Congress faced a major embarrassment in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday when party member YS Jaganmohan Reddy joined a TDP demonstration in the well of the House, shook hands with TDP members and borrowed a placard from them which he held afloat to say ?We want united AP.?
Jaganmohan, son of late chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, had Congress members, K Bapiraju, Botcha Jhansi Lakshmi, Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy and K S Reddy for company. As the stunned Congress benches looked on at this unusual show of solidarity with the TDP by an important party member, Jaganmohan stood in the well, smiling.
Making matters worse for the Congress, its contingent from Andhra split into two camps?over half-a-dozen members from Telangana tried to shout down TDP members, while another lot, opposed to bifurcation of Andhra, was parked in another block, trying to counter the first group. The din forced Speaker Meira Kumar to adjourn the House for 15 minutes.
It all started when the Speaker permitted K Narayana Rao of TDP to speak. Congress members from Telangana sprang up as one to oppose him. Parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal tried to make them take their seats but they were on their feet again within minutes.
When the House met again, TDP members N Sivaprasad, N Kristappa, M Venugopal Reddy and K Narayana Rao were back in the well to oppose the Central government announcement on initiating the process for a separate Telangana. The Speaker, in the meantime, took up the discussion on the railway ministry?s supplementary grants. But TDP members remained in the well, an act that annoyed Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee who told them to observe decorum. Ultimately, Bansal, Sanjay Nirupam (Congress), Rewati Raman Singh (SP) and Sudip Bandyopadhyay (Trinamool) persuaded them to return to their seats.
But Jaganmohan?s action inside the House triggered a storm within the Congress. Several party MPs demanded disciplinary action against him. Congress MPs from Telangana also demanded action against Vijayawada MP L Rajagopal for undertaking a fast-unto-death against the proposed Telangana. The MPs made the demand during a meeting with defence minister AK Antony.
?We do not like the way Jaganmohan joined hands with the TDP, it is indiscipline,? said S Satyanarayana, Congress MP from Malkajgiri. ?We want action against Rajagopal too.? Ponnam Prabhakar, MP from Karimnagar, said the decision for creating a separate Telangana had been taken by the party high command and the actions of Jaganmohan and Rajagopal amounted to a defiance of Sonia Gandhi.
But Jaganmohan stood his ground. While pitching in for a united Andhra, he told reporters that he resorted to this action because he ?did not want TDP to project itself as the sole champion of a united Andhra?. He said TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu was ?the real culprit? for the current standoff.
