The stock of the Congress is at its lowest in Andhra Pradesh, the party’s strongest bastion in the South for the past decade. The State has been plunged into the throes of bifurcation. The July 30 Congress Working Committee decision to create Telangana, followed by the Union Cabinet endorsement in October, have pushed the party into utter chaos.

In the 13 districts of Seemandhra, where the party had 18 of the 25 MP seats and a majority of the 175 Assembly seats, the Congress is expected to be reduced to a double-digit presence in the Assembly and virtually nothing in Parliament, going by the present public mood. In fact, rumours of its leaders breaking away and floating a separate party are rife.

The party high command, however, claims it has not taken Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy’s open criticism against the Telangana Bill seriously. “We had not issued any whips to the MLAs. They were allowed to speak freely. There is no issue of indiscipline in the Chief Minister’s stand,” AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik said in Delhi.

In these circumstances, most sitting MPs and even strong local leaders are not showing any interest to fight on the party ticket. The same is predominantly true of the Assembly, to which elections are slated to be held simultaneously.

The overwhelming anger of the youth indicates a bleak future for the party.

The decision to split is widely perceived to be a political move of the Congress which, realising its pathetic situation in the State, is banking on the support of the Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS) in Telangana and YSR Congress in Seemandhra. TRS has promised to merge itself with the Congress if Telangana is actually created. Here, the cadres and leaders are excited and there is clamour for seats. However, the credit for the creation of Telangana is being grabbed both by TRS and Congress.

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