Hyderabad: Chandrababu Naidu and K. Chandrasekhar Rao could not succeed in and later Jagan Mohan Reddy and KCR too failed. Can Naidu and Revanth Reddy now accomplish the task?
Ten years since the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh bifurcation, and at a time when the need, responsibility to resolve the pending matters is pressing, the two chief ministers are meeting Saturday to “address the issues amicably with utmost diligence and resolve.”
On Tuesday, Telangana CM Revanth Reddy responded positively to his former boss and Andhra Pradesh counterpart Naidu’s letter a day before proposing a one-on-one meeting to arrive at mutually beneficial solutions for both the states.
“There have been multiple discussions, the past 10 years, concerning issues arising from the AP Reorganisation Act, which hold significant implications for the welfare and advancement of our states,” he wrote.
“I firmly believe that a face-to-face meeting will provide us with the opportunity to engage comprehensively on these critical issues and collaborate effectively towards achieving mutually beneficial solutions for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. I am confident that our deliberations will lead to productive outcomes.”
I have written to the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Telangana, Sri @revanth_anumula Garu, proposing a meeting to discuss matters of mutual interest between our two Telugu-speaking States. I look forward to working closely with him to resolve post-bifurcation issues, enhance… pic.twitter.com/RKVbBYwpxO
— N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn) July 1, 2024
Naidu even proposed the date, time and place — “at your place on 6 July, Saturday afternoon.”
In his reply, Revanth said he is “in complete agreement with Naidu’s reflections.”
“It is indeed an imperative need to resolve all pending issues of the Bifurcation Act. An in-person meeting is necessary to help us build a strong foundation for mutual cooperation, exchange of ideas, and enable us to better serve our respective people,” the Telangana CM wrote back.
In reply to the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Sri @ncbn Garu, proposing a meeting to discuss and resolve all pending issues of the bifurcation act, I invite him on behalf of Telangana Govt for tete-a-tete on 6th July at Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phule Bhavan in Hyderabad. pic.twitter.com/k2babR5boP
— Revanth Reddy (@revanth_anumula) July 2, 2024
Revanth invited the AP CM for a tete-a-tete adhering to Naidu’s time: afternoon hours of 6 July in Hyderabad.
The stage is set for the two Telugu CM’s meet at the KCR rule-built Pragathi Bhavan, which was renamed Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phule Bhavan soon after Revanth took over in December.
Five years ago, around the same time KCR had hosted Jagan at the same palatial building, then serving as his camp office. A “two-day” meeting ensued between the ministers, officials teams headed by their CMs.
“KCR even gave one presentation on river-water sharing. However, nothing came of the discussions, especially for AP. There were some sort of agreements arrived at on some aspects and minutes too recorded, but Telangana retracted from its position later. The deliberations planned for two days were also confined to one day,” L. V. Subrahmanyam, then AP chief secretary who accompanied Jagan, told ThePrint.
But, his then Telangana counterpart S.K. Joshi said that “there were no agreements reached on any issue.”
Both former administrators could not recollect an instance of such a resolution meeting between Naidu and KCR before in Hyderabad or Amaravati. The two CMs, however, met at-least once – September 2016 – in New Delhi for the apex council meeting with then Union water resources minister Uma Bharti.
“Had a fruitful meeting of Apex Council on water-sharing between AP & Telangana with CM KCR garu and Uma Bharati ji,” Naidu tweeted with a picture of the three.
Had a fruitful meeting of Apex Council on water-sharing between AP & Telangana with CM KCR garu & @umasribharti ji. pic.twitter.com/F4z1AotbCP
— N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn) September 21, 2016
The sharing of river waters, especially of Krishna, is still a boiling issue between the two states.
Also Read: Some matters settled, but many squabbles persist — AP-Telangana ties 10 yrs after bifurcation
Good start, no solution
Unlike the Naidu-KCR relation which worsened with the 2015 cash for vote scam, an episode in which Revanth as a Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLA allegedly played a key role, KCR and Jagan started off on the right foot towards resolving the bifurcation issues.
Burying the acrimonious past of the statehood agitation time, when KCR opposed Jagan’s forays into Telangana, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (then Telangana Rashtra Samithi) purportedly supported Jagan’s YSR Congress Party during the 2019 polls.
Jagan called on KCR soon after the results and KCR attended his swearing-in ceremony in Vijayawada 30 May. Jagan also came for the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project inauguration on 21 June that year on KCR’s invitation. This year, KCR predicted Jagan’s victory though the results were different.
To bolster the cordial atmosphere, the AP government had, on Jagan’s directions in June 2019, handed over its share of four blocks in the combined secretariat to Telangana. This when it could have kept the buildings till at-least June 2024 i.e., the duration of Hyderabad as the joint capital of both states.
“And we could not extract anything in return,” the now retired Subrahmanyam said.
Later, KCR razed all the buildings to raise the over Rs 1,000 crore palace-like secretariat at the same spot.
The bifurcation matters failed to move towards a solution, as both KCR and Jagan regimes sparred over irrigation projects like Pothireddypadu to divert Krishna waters.
The scheduled meeting between Naidu and Revanth, officials from both states say, has raised strong hopes for an early, easy resolution, “given the extremely affectionate equation between the two.”
Aided by his oratory skills and leadership capabilities, Revanth’s meteoric rise in TDP and politics overall, analysts say, is largely due to Naidu’s patronage. Naidu elevated the two-time TDP MLA as the Telangana TDP working president and assembly floor leader, overlooking some seniors.
Though he joined the Congress in October 2017, as the TDP clout diminished in Telangana, Revanth maintained cordial ties with Naidu.
“I now need to work not 12 but 18 hours a day in order to compete with the AP CM,” Revanth said June-end at the 24th anniversary of Basavatarakam Indo-American Cancer Hospital, a trust-run institute in Hyderabad managed by Naidu’s brother-in-law and TDP MLA Nandamuri Balakrishna.
Naidu and Revanth spoke soon after the TDP won the polls. The Congress CM, sources said, could not attend Naidu’s swearing in at Vijayawada given the presence of PM Narendra Modi and others in the NDA government formation event.
In his letter, Naidu congratulated Revanth on “the remarkable work undertaken by him as Chief Minister of Telangana,” while the latter lauded his counterpart “on an extraordinary poll victory and for joining a very rare league of political leaders in Independent India who have taken oath as Chief Minister for a fourth time.”
“The bifurcation issues are technical, financial in nature but the key to their resolution is political will. If both sides are prepared to give and take, they can be resolved in a day; otherwise, the matter will drag on for ages like the one decade that went by,” Joshi said.
What two states are sparring over
2 June this year signified the 10th anniversary of the bifurcation that saw Telangana carved out from Andhra Pradesh.
Critical unresolved matters, such as the division of assets, urgently require the attention of both leaders. Among other issues like river waters, the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments have to apportion public sector assets, belonging to various institutions and corporations, to the tune of Rs 1.4 lakh crore — some of them prime properties in Hyderabad.
These bodies are charted in Schedules IX and X of the Reorganisation Act.
While Andhra Pradesh accepted the recommendations of the Sheela Bhide committee, Telangana did not agree to the proposed sharing.
Unable to resolve the differences, mainly concerning the public sector assets, Andhra Pradesh reached the Supreme Court in 2022 complaining that actual division of assets and liabilities had not commenced. It sought the SC’s intervention to appoint arbitrators under the court’s supervision.
There is also a lack of agreement on other liabilities, including power dues. Andhra Pradesh says Telangana owes it over Rs 7,000 crore for energy supplied between June 2014 and June 2017 — a demand Telangana has refused to clear. Pending power dues has been a persistent concern raised by Jagan in his meetings with the prime minister over the past five years, but to no avail.
Officials say the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) since 2016 called the two states for meetings over 30 times, but end up asking them to resolve the differences themselves.
“It will be wonderful if the CMs can arrive at a happy conclusion. Otherwise, the Centre, instead of watching the ‘tamasha’ (farce), should get involved seriously, broker peace to work out a solution objectively,” said Subrahmanyam.
“The formula was to share joint assets like in Hyderabad in ratio of population i.e., 58 to AP and 42 Telangana. The Revanth government should pay the land-buildings share cost to AP, which needs to replicate those structures at its capital,” he said. “Otherwise the demand gains momentum to keep Hyderabad as joint capital till a solution comes up.”
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Calling Jagan a ‘curse’, Andhra Pradesh CM Naidu releases white paper on stalled Polavaram project