On December 9, 2009, P. Chidambaram, the Union Minister of Home Affairs announced that the Indian government would start the process of forming a separate Telangana state, pending the introduction and passage of a separation resolution in the Andhra Pradesh assembly. KCR thus ended his 11 day fast, saying from his hospital bed that this was a "true victory of the people of Telangana."
Pro-Telangana supporters celebrated the central government decision while those from the Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions (Andhra region) protested. In fact, within a short time of the Home Minister's declaration, sensing the public mood, MLAs from the Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions (Andhra region) submitted their resignations in protest of the process of creation of a new state within Andhra Pradesh. By the 16th of December, at least 147 legislators (including Praja Rajyam Founder Chiranjeevi) and many Members of Parliament had resigned in protest of the Government's decision to begin discussions on forming a new state of Telangana. 22 Ministers from the State Cabinet, all from Andhra (Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema) regions submitted their resignations.
On December 16, media reports confirmed that there was a split in the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) over the Telangana issue, with its leader Chiranjeevi as well as 16 out of 18 party MLAs(the remaining 2 hailed from Telangana) opposing the division of Andhra Pradesh while Telangana leaders in the party were unhappy with the shift in the party's views.
On December 23, the Government of India announced that no action on Telangana will be taken until a consensus is reached by all parties. The TRS reacted by calling for another general strike on 24th Dec '09, an action aimed at stalling the regional economy.
A Joint Action Committee (JAC) was formed with the pro-separation members of the major political parties. There were reports that members of the JAC had widely divergent approaches on the issue of a separate Telangana.Subsequently, Andhra (Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema) region MLAs started withdrawing their resignations while MLAs and ministers from Telangana started submitting their resignations, demanding the Centre to take immediate steps to initiate the process of bifurcating Andhra Pradesh. The Home minister had an all party meeting on the 5th of January to elicit views of all parties in the State. Further, on the advice of Congress party's central leadership, all of the Ministers from Telangana withdrew their resignations. Rallies, hunger strikes, suicides continue, sometimes turning violent, through out Telangana to protest against the delay in bifurcating the State. The all-party Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) started relay hunger strikes and threatened resignations of all legislators on Jan 28, demanding the Centre to spell out its stand on separate Telangana and start the process of creating the State within a timeframe. The Union minister for Home Affairs P Chidambaram announced on January 28 that a Committee to examine the demand for a separate Telangana would be announced after a week. On the 3rd February the government announced the 5 member committee that would look into the issue of Bifurcation of state.
The Telangana Joint Action Committee said the agitations would continue until a Bill was passed in Parliament for the formation of a Telangana State. Agitation involved human chains, community kitchens on roads, amongst others On Feb 3rd JAC organized a longest human chain in India, a distance of 500 km, from north to South in Telangana.
The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind has supported a separate Telangana state by giving the slogan, "Justice for Telangana and Telangana for Justice" The Jamaat with its student wing Students Islamic Organisation of India organized a large rally at Nizam college grounds on February 7, 2010.
On February 12, Central government announced Terms of Reference
to B.N. Srikrishna Committee with a deadline of December 31, 2010. Telangana-JAC rejected the terms of reference saying that it "undid" Union home minister's statement in New Delhi on December 9, 2009.
All 10 of TRS MLAs, 1 TDP MLA, 1 BJP MLA insisted speaker of Assembly to accept their resignations. Speaker accepts resignations of 12 MLAs. Rest of the Telangana MLAs withdrew their resignations which disappointed Telangana JAC.
On February 16, Congress legislators from the Telangana region resigned from the Joint Action Committee due to "unilateral actions by KCR."
As of February 22, 2010, more than 250 Telangana people committed suicides over the delay in the formation of Telangana state.
Sri Krishna Committee solicited suggestions/views from the political parties, social organisations and other stakeholders on February 21. Committee received over 60,000 petitions by the deadline of April 10. The committee began personal interactions with the various stakeholders, including the political parties starting from April 16. The committee met with the leaders of TRS, PRP, CPI, MIM, TDP leaders from Seema-Andhra, TDP leaders from Telangana and various organizations from though out Andhra Pradesh.
By-elections for 12 MLA seats are scheduled on Jul 27. Congress and TDP decided to contest elections ignoring the appeal of JAC.
On July 6, Telangana congress legislators and ministers met Sri Krishna commission and made strong arguments in favor of the formation of Telangana state.
All the Telangana MLAs who resigned protesting the delay in the formation of Telangana(11 TRS and 1BJP) in February were re-elected in the by-elections on July 27, 2010 with huge majority. TDP lost deposits(i.e. got less than 1/6th of polled votes)in all constituencies; Congress lost deposits in 4 constituencies.
AP state Ministers belongs to Seema-Andhra submitted a report to SriKrishna Committee saying that those seeking separate Telangana are anti-national. They also said that all the districts of Telangana are well developed between 1992 and present period. This evoked strong protests in Telangana demanding the dismissal of those ministers. Incidentally, Central Government declared 13 districts in AP are backward, and 9 out of 10 Telangana districts are backward vindicating Telangana proponents arguments.
