The trigger for large-scale student protests and damage to public property was from an indefinite hunger-strike launched on November 30 by the Telengana leader Mr. K Chandrasekhara Rao, who has been in and out of Congress with his nine-year old Telengana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). He was taken into preventive custody as he was about to begin his fast in Khammam district to forestall violent demonstrations but it had the opposite effect as students went on rampage.

For a brief Mr. Rao broke his fast on December 1 yielding to medical advice. But seeing that it had enraged the rioting university students in Warangal and Hyderabad in support of a separate state, he immediately resumed it. Mr. Rao was shifted to Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, for continuous attention by a team of medical specialists, given his health problems. As pro-Telengana leaders met him, he insisted that he would end the fast if he was called by Sonia Gandhi for talks in New Delhi.

The Chief Minister Mr. Rosaiah, who was in Delhi for talks with Central leaders after being formally selected by the Congress President who was authorised to name the leader by the Congress Legislature Party, was reportedly told to maintain law and order, without giving in to violence. Sonia Gandhi told a group of Congress MPs from Telengana who called on her to meet her on December 7 to discuss the issue.

Mr. Rosiah said on return that the Government would not yield to threats and he was prepared to meet the fasting leader if he ends his hunger-strike. There is no compromise formula he could offer.

The Telengana issue had been left to Sonia Gandhi in 2004. The latest Telengana bandh over the weekend with violent demonstrations by students, as Mr. Rao began his fast, has changed the dynamics of the situation. Mr. Rosaiah says the Congress high command is seized of the issue and Congressmen should abide by Sonia's decision. Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao parted company with Congress after a brief spell of power-sharing with Congress in 2004; for the 2009 elections, his party was in alliance with TDP of Mr. Chadrababu Naidu who himself is not a votary of a separate Telengana state. BJP is the only party in the state to support Telengana.

The TDP leader, on the other hand, has been co-ordinating with other opposition parties to demand an end to “illegal mining” by the Obulapuram Mining Company owned by Mr. Janardhana Reddy, Karnataka Minister for Tourism, who had his way with the BJP high command after leading a revolt against Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa in October.

Mr. Naidu said opposition parties would fight out the “Reddy Brothers” (BJP ministers) and others involved in the “mining scam” in the contiguous border areas of AP and Karnataka. The Rosaiah Government recently issued an order banning mining activity in the mines on the AP side of the border. The opposition leaders would meet the Prime Minister and seek his intervention. Mr. Naidu had also alleged that Mr. Janardhana Reddy had financed the media enterprise “Sakshi” of Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy, son of YSR.

The Telengana developments have now overshadowed the dissensions within the ruling party where Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy, MP, was seeing himself as the logical heir for the office his late father held, and regarded Mr. Rosaiah as a ”weak” CM. He was becoming a rival power centre when Ms. Sonia Gandhi firmly supported Mr. Rosiah and advised Mr. Jaganmohan to wait and gain more political experience.

The Congress President meanwhile persuaded Mr Jaganmohan's mother, Mrs. Vijayalakshmi, to contest the by-election in the constituency (Pulivendula) her late husband represented. With some reluctance, she has filed her nomination for the by-poll on December 19. TDP, the major opposition party, says it will not put up a candidate for this by-election and it is likely Mrs. Vijayalakshmi would be elected almost unopposed. Mr Jagan has said he would undertake a state-wide tour to see how far his father's promises to the electorate are being implemented.

Mr. Rosaiah has from day one committed himself to fully implementing YSR promises and has been taking steps in those directions, despite a severe fiscal crunch the state has run into in the current year. He had been authorised to reconstitute his Cabinet for more efficient and cohesive functioning. This could be in January after the State Assembly meets for a brief winter session from December 7. There is also the possibility that the Chief Minister would invite Mrs. Vijayalakshmi to join his cabinet.

For the ruling party, keeping its house in order is a vital requirement to continue to be a source of stability for the UPA Government at the Centre, since AP was the major state which elected the maximum number of Congress MPs in the 2009 Lok Sabha election. The unity which the ruling party put up and defied the anti-incumbency factor in the 2009 Assembly elections under the leadership of YSR can no longer be taken for granted.

Adding to its problems, the Congress received a setback in the prestigious Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections on November 23. The party which contested all the 150 seats and hoped for not less than 100 seats ended up with 52 while TDP, which had led an unsuccessful alliance against the Congress in the Assembly and Parliamentary elections in May, won 45 seats out of 143 seats it contested. MIM (Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen), retaining its dominance in the old city, secured 43 seats, positioning itself to play the key role in the Mayoral elections in the first week of December.

BJP fared the poorest with 5 seats while Praja Rajyam of Chiranjeevi, a late entrant with 64 candidates, had just one seat. But the Hyderabad elections have given a tremendous boost to TDP and Mr. Naidu tends to see it as a pro-TDP wind for the next elections in the state. The Congress and TDP would be locked in a series of state-wide civic elections next year. (IPA Service)