Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy’s call for rejection of the draft AP Re-Organisation Bill triggered a chain reaction in the pro and anti-bifurcation camps.

While some senior Congress leaders and Ministers from Seemandhra region held a meeting with Kiran Kumar Reddy, Telangana Congress leaders and ministers gathered at IT Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah’s residence on Sunday afternoon to discuss respective strategies to be adopted in the Assembly on Monday.

Kiran Kumar Reddy, who is the Leader of House, had given a notice on Saturday to the Speaker under Rule 77, calling for rejection of the draft bill. The draft resolution proposed by him sought to reject the Bill and make an appeal to the President not to recommend the draft Bill as it lacked any reason for bifurcation.

His remarks resulted in an uproar in the House and outside, with Telangana leaders from all political parties, including the Congress, flaying him for trying to stall the bill. Those who gathered at Ponnala Lakshmaiah’s residence included Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha and Ministers Sreedhar Babu, Sudarsan Reddy and Uttarkumar Reddy. “We are going to meet the Speaker tonight and would request him to reject the CM’s notice,” Lakshmaiah said. Ponnala Lakshmaiah, his Cabinet colleague, argued that the Chief Minister never discussed this move in the Cabinet and, hence, he couldn’t move it on behalf of the Government. He wrote separate letters to Governor ESL Narasimhan, Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar and Legislative Council Chairman Chakrapani called it objectionable to seek to move the resolution. “I appeal to reject his notice,” he said in the letter.

The Assembly has time till January 30 to discuss the draft Bill and send its opinion to the President.

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