Stability of Congress govt in AP in sharp focus

Kiran Kumar,who held meetings with a few of his ministers on different issues in the secretariat today,reportedly discussed the political developments,particularly the participation of over two dozen Congress MLAs in Jagan’s ‘deeksha’ in Delhi in open defiance of the party high command’s directives.

“I myself spoke with many of those MLAs and conveyed the high command’s feelings. But they went ahead with their plan,” the Chief Minister reportedly told his Cabinet colleagues.

“It is certainly a disturbing factor but we have to wait and see what our high command does to handle the situation,” a senior minister said after the meeting.

In case of a situation in which Congress gets into a number problem,the survival of the government would depend on the support of Praja Rajyam Party and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.

But then,danger lurks in the form of Telangana protagonists who threatened to quit their posts if a Bill for the creation of a separate state was not tabled in the Budget session of Parliament.

Congress currently has 155 MLAs in the Assembly. The effective strength of the House now is 293 following the resignation of Jagan’s mother Y S Vijayalakshmi last month.

With 18 MLAs,Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party could ensure the support of only 14 MLAs to the Kiran Kumar government as two of its MLAs also have joined the Jagan bandwagon while the other two are in the Telangana camp.

The seven-member MIM’s support will depend on Congress stand on the state bifurcation issue,sources in the party said.

“We will decide what to do only after Congress decides what it will do on the statehood issue,” a senior MIM leader said.

MIM is primarily against the bifurcation of the state. In fact,PRP too is strongly in favour of a unified state and its support to Congress,in any eventuality,might as well be conditional.

In such a scenario,the government will be in a real big soup,political analysts point out.