Political analysts are of the view that the decision to form a separate state of Telangana was not taken at the right time, and that the fall of the Congress party in the country had just begun. The recent remarks of the late former President Pranab Mukherjee in his autobiography also seem to reinforce this. Through his memoir, Pranab had made it clear that he was reluctant against the formation of Telangana state. These remarks have now turned sensational. ‘The Presidential Years: 2012-2017’, also has key remarks about the formation of Telangana. The late President even stated that he couldn’t imagine having separated Telangana and Andhra Pradesh through the ‘Telangana Reorganization Bill’.
The main reason for the party’s downfall
It was Pranab Mukherjee who had signed the Gazette Notification on the emergence of Telangana, as then President of India. He also added that post the partition of Andhra Pradesh, the Congress situation in the two states did not improve as expected and on the contrary, a negative political climate prevailed. Since then, the party has been heading towards downfall. He also recollected that Andhra Pradesh had been the Congress bastion with the highest number of Lok Sabha seats. The loss of states with traditional and strong vote bank which the Congress enjoyed over the years, led to it losing power, Pranab opined in his memoir.
After Pranab became the President of India, there has been a significant change in the outlook of the Congress, adding that there were hesitations in taking several key decisions. The former statesman also said that Sonia Gandhi had failed to lead the party due to the circumstances at the time. Pranab Mukherjee in his memoir mentioned having predicted about a hung Parliament in the 2014 General Elections, and that the BJP having won 195 to 200 seats would emerge as the single largest party.
