Centre likely to drag Telangana issue till 2014

HYDERABAD/NEW DELHI: At the end of a hectic day in Delhi during which he had separate meetings with the top brass of the party, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy had more than one reason to smile.Sources said he appears to have succeeded in convincing the high command that the one-man, one-post principle should be applied to PCC chief B Satyanarayana who continues to be a member of the Cabinet.Much to the discomfiture of Kiran, Botcha has been more than active ever since he took over as PCC chief even going to the extent of holding meetings with groups of ministers discussing policy issues which are not in his domain. Kiran obviously feels that such a second power centre in the government will not send the right message to the people or the party. He also broadly discussed the additions and deletions from the ministry when the reshuffle is taken up some time this month.Kiran is also keen on filling all the vacant positions to various corporations as early as possible apart from deciding nominees for prominent bodies like the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams.The chief minister began the day by meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi along with AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad and followed it up with a call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He also had a separate interaction with Rahul Gandhi and a two-hour one-on-one with Azad.The primary issue that came for discussion in all these meetings was of course the Telangana demand.Kiran emphasised that the Centre needs to take a position sooner than later as dragging it for far too long is leading to instability on both political and economic fronts.The signal that emerged is that the Centre intends to take a decision on splitting the State only around 2014 elections. As such, the discussions largely veered around how to manage the situation till then whether by constituting regional development councils or by any other means. Sources said Kiran’s meeting with Rahul Gandhi focused on new schemes that he intends to launch in the State, gradually replacing the pet schemes of the late YSR.