President Pranab Mukherjee is believed to have sent a bill for the creation of Telengana to the union home ministry. Sources declined to give details of what the President said in forwarding the bill back to the home ministry.
Telangana protagonists believe that the President sending the bill back to the government implies that it would go to the Andhra Pradesh assembly for considering it before it either adopts or rejects it. Rashtrapati Bhavan maintained silence over the issue. In the recent instances of creation of new states, the parent states were given 40 days time to consider the legislation for creation of the new states.
The President had sought legal opinions as he wanted the bill, which provides for creation of Telangana by bifurcating AP, to be legally sound before sending it to the state assembly
for approval.
Shinde had said on Wednesday that the legislation has been sent to the President through the PM and after that it would be sent to the state assembly. The Andhra Pradesh State Reorganisation Bill has already faced opposition from the state Congress’ own chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy. ‘We will see how the Bill is passed in Parliament. United Andhra Pradesh is not just a slogan, it’s our policy,’ Reddy had said.