The Congress party, which has hedged its political bets in Andhra Pradesh in favour of Telangana, is racing against time as it tries to wrap up the formation of the country’s 29th state in six months, before the 2014 general election kicks in. The Union cabinet’s approval on Thursday to carve Telangana out of Andhra Pradesh is only the first step towards statehood formation and the Congress-led government needs to show greater resolve in accelerating the process if it plans to sweep the 119 assembly and 17 parliamentary seats in Telangana in 2014, say analysts. Andhra Pradesh, which sent the highest number of elected representatives from Congress to Parliament in 2009, will simultaneously elect representatives to both the state and Union ...