We're not thinking of President's rule: Centre - The Hindu

AFP Riot police charge at a group of students rallying in support of statehood for Telangana on the Osmania University campus in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

We hope the process of consultations will show us the path to reach a conclusion: Chidambaram

Even as a near-total bandh hit life in parts of Andhra Pradesh, and over 100 MLAs and MPs from different parties have tendered their resignation on the Telangana issue, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said on Wednesday that the process of consultation was continuing.

Ruling out President's rule, he said: “The status as of today is the consultation process is still continuing. No decision has been taken yet. We are not thinking of President's rule. We hope that the process of consultations will show us the path to reach a conclusion.”

He was replying to questions at a press conference here, after releasing the Home Ministry's report card for June.

Expressing his unhappiness with the resignation of MPs and MLAs from Telangana, including those belonging to the Congress, Mr. Chidambaram said the Centre would engage them in talks. The Congress general secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh had been holding discussions with the party MLAs and MPs.

Admitting that there were apprehensions that law and order problems could arise due to the bandh, he said the State had been given Central armed police forces to deal with the situation. “But I hope there will not be any breakdown of law and order.”

He said Director-General of Police Dinesh Reddy, who took charge recently, made a courtesy call on him while attending a meeting here of the police chiefs of the States affected by Left-Wing Extremism.

Stressing that the Centre understood the provocation for an agitation, Mr. Chidambaram expressed the hope that even those who participated in the protest would not take it on a path that would lead to a breakdown of law and order.

Towards a dead-end

Meanwhile, with another Congress Lok Sabha member hinting at the possibility of submitting his resignation on Thursday, the Telangana issue seems headed for a dead-end despite two rounds of consultations held by Finance Minister and Congress' troubleshooter Pranab Mukherjee with the party leaders from the Telangana region.

The parleys with the three Andhra Pradesh Ministers from Telangana — K. Jana Reddy, Ponnala Lakshmaiah and Basawaraju Saraiah — and some Congress MPs and MLCs from the region continued throughout Tuesday night, and another round was held on Wednesday afternoon. As no solution was found at the meeting, the three Ministers and some MPs returned to Hyderabad.

Sources said Mr. Mukherjee had some reservations about the Congress legislators' decision to resign and suggested that they could have held a meeting with the party leadership before taking the hasty decision. He assured them that he would discuss the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and get back to them. However, neither did he make a commitment on introducing the Telangana Bill nor persuade the legislators to withdraw their resignation letters.

With the Congress Core Group discussing the issue on Wednesday evening, the three State Ministers were hopeful that the Centre would come out with a decision soon.

In another development, the Congress MPs from coastal Andhra, K.S. Rao and V. Arun Kumar, met Mr. Mukherjee and asked him to ensure that the State was not divided. They said the party MPs from the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions would come as a delegation next week to persuade the high command and the Centre not to bifurcate the State.