The cabinet decision means that the centre’s contentious plan to add two more districts – Anantapur and Kurnool – to the proposed state of Telangana have been shelved.

The Cabinet has cleared a parliamentary bill for the creation of the state of Telangana, with the original 10 districts first proposed by the Congress Working Committee.

Speaking to reporters after the cabinet meeting, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said that Hyderabad would be the common capital for both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for a period not exceeding 10 years, adding that an alternative capital for Andhra Pradesh would be identified by the central government and developed with central government funding.

Other provisions of the bill included special status for both states under Article 371 D of the Constitution for equitable opportunities. Both states would also have one governor assisted by two central government appointed advisors who will take care of law and order related issues in Hyderabad.

The government wants the bill to be tabled in the winter session of Parliament.

The cabinet decision means that the centre’s contentious plan to add two more districts – Anantapur and Kurnool – to the proposed state of Telangana have been shelved.

The initial plan to include both districts was positioned as a way of bypassing problems such as sharing of water resources once Andhra Pradesh is bifurcated. Among the issues to be sorted out amicably through the idea of a Rayala Telangana are the Srisailam hydel project built across the Krishna river in Kurnool, as well as the hope that the move would dent a proposal for a separate Rayala state.

The announcement of the plan led to immediate protests, including a bandh in Telangana, called by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (the original champion of the proposed bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh to create Telangana). Stone throwing at various places including at the Osmania University in Hyderabad, shutdowns and sloganeering were also reported from across the region.

Shops and commercial establishments did not open as usual and bus services were hit today. The proposal was also slammed as a blatant Congress strategy to swing votes in Hyderabad in its favour, and not through any sympathy for genuine statehood aspirations.

A report by P Sainath in The Hindu said that the Congress appears to have done some math around the numbers in the state Assembly from such a division: 160 MLAs belong to Seemandhra, 119 to Telangana as the state’s boundary was first proposed to be drawn, leaving the balance clearly tilted in favour of those opposed to the carving out of a new state. Kurnool and Anantapur’s 28 MLAs, who are expected to vote for the new state once Rayala is part of Telangana, will tilt the balance the way the Congress wants.