Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
bad as their capital (the first time such a claim had been proposed by a potential break-
away state), which led to strong opposition from the powerful and rich newcomers from the
coastal regions, who feared that their investments and prospects in the city would be hit.
They feared a crash in real estate values, together with a cutback on infrastructure projects
and other deals, and even thought they might be driven out by the new Telangana rulers.
This led many of them to favour a compromise, with the city becoming a self-contained
Union Territory - a sort of mini city-state - independent of both Andhra and the new Telan-
gana.
Among the most powerful and vocal anti-Telangana politicians have been Lagadapati
Rajagopal, founder of the once rapidly-growing but now heavily-indebted Lanco Infratech
infrastructure, power and construction group. A Congress MP, he was one of the financiers
of a padayatra in 2003 by YSR that helped to bring him to power. Rajagopal's development
plans in and around Hyderabad could be hit hard if the state is split. Another Congress MP
with powerful Delhi connections is T. Subbarami Reddy, whose Gayatri group has many
infrastructure projects. Also facing possible losses from a split would be Andhra-born G.
Mallikarjuna Rao, founder-chairman of the Bengaluru-based GMR group that built Hy-
derabad airport and controversially has a massive 5,400 acres of land around the site, with
the right to develop it. National and local politicians are widely believed to have invested
anonymously in similar companies through proxy names and other routes though that may
never be proved.
In December 2009, the Congress-led central government was faced with a long fast by
a leading local politician, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, leader of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
He appeared to be endangering his life to revive his crumbling political image as the head
of the Telangana movement. The government gave way and agreed to create a new state,
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but that impulsive and humane decision led to violent demonstrations, as well as resigna-
tion threats by about half the members of the state's legislative assembly, and a revolt by
businessmen who felt threatened. This paralyzed the state government (and sparked follow-
on bifurcation claims from other states), though it did succeed in enabling KCR to end his
fast. Predictably, once the fast was over, the central government backed off and hoped to
indefinitely stall the Telangana claim.
The Congress had traditionally had strong support in the Telangana region since Nehru's
government ousted the Nizam, but that was dissipated by the way the party's national lead-
ership mishandled both the separate state issue and Jagan Reddy's claim to his father's
mantle. It broke the party's hold on the state, which is politically important because Andhra
is often a key player in national coalition politics. The state-based Telugu Desam Party, led
by Chandrababu Naidu, who was chief minister from 1995 to 2004, had such a big stake
in the 1998-2004 BJP-led government that Naidu was the coalition's chief co-ordinator in
Delhi. The state also contributed 30-odd MPs to the two Congress-led national coalitions in
