The ‘Rayala-Telangana’ idea seeks to exploit a regional divide within a regional divide. It could backfire with serious consequences. The UPA government’s notion of a ‘Rayala-Telangana’ state could fail before it gets off the ground. The Telangana Rashtra Samiti has called for a bandh to protest the idea. It is a rare case of a newly emerging state saying it does not want additional territory. And of course those for a united Andhra oppose the idea anyway. Although the TRS is the flag-bearer of the Telangana statehood cause — and the major Congress ally in the region — its anger should not come as a surprise. Not to those who read the Congress’s strategy on the issue. The Bharatiya Janata ...

Only 3 ministers – Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jairam Ramesh and Veerappa Moily seem to have pushed for including the Rayala-Telangana as an option to be considered by Union cabinet. The other 4 members, including Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde didn’t prefer it and wanted to stick to the original plan – Telangana with 10 districts. While they wanted GoM to work as per the original Cabinet directive and gave recommendations accordingly, media reports say Rayala-Telangana is an option the GoM mentioned in its report so that Cabinet consider it for discussion. Rumors floated earlier that the Royala-Telangana proposal came from above, from Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. If that was true, the proposal wouldn’t have been opposed by GoM members ...

After all the Andhra media hype about how the AP assembly session may be delayed to avoid discussing the draft Telangana bill and thereby delay and ‘kill’ the bill before it reaches Parliament, AP State cabinet decided to convene the AP legislature for the Winter Session from December 12th. The Telangana bill is expected to come to the assembly by then and if the assembly discusses the bill and shares its opinion with Centre, the bill may be introduced in the Parliament session that ends on Dec 20th or an extension of the session that may be convened in January after the new year eve. The parliament has a long agenda for the short winter session and almost all parties ...

Protests all over Telangana today. KTR protests with party men in Hyderabad -      

The Bangalore ATM attacker has been identified as one Narayan Reddy, a resident of Nallacheruvu Mandal, Cheruvulavadla village in Andhra Pradesh. However, the police have not been able to nab him yet. Police sources say that he will arrest him soon, as he is believed to be in Andhra. The man has allegedly attacked a woman with a machete at an ATM kiosk in Bangalore in mid November, leaving her seriously injured. A CCTV footage showed the man threatening the woman, then attacking her. He later cleaned the blood with the woman’s napkin, took away her phone and left the kiosk after pulling down the rolling shutter. The Bangalore attacker is also believed to have murdered a woman in Dharmavaram ...