Manmohan Singh’s tenure as prime minister was not only marked by economic reforms but also saw the birth of the youngest state of the country – Telangana –the culmination of a long-standing struggle for statehood that left the residual state of Andhra Pradesh depleted and angry. It was Dr Manmohan Singh who had saved the day when the reorganization Bill almost fell through in the Rajya Sabha. Congress was, subsequently, wiped out of Andhra Pradesh in a manner reminiscent of its exit from Tamil Nadu.

He, as the prime minister, played a key role in the formation of Telangana as a state while at the same time assuaging the hurt sentiments of the residual state of Andhra Pradesh which at one sweep lost its capital city and also became a revenue deficit state with the loss of Hyderabad.

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Although made several promises standing on the floor of Parliament, the massive defeat suffered by the UPA in 2014 put paid to the hope of fulfilling those promises for both the Telugu states, leaving the AP Reorganisation Act as a toothless tiger.

In December 2009 under the UPA dispensation, during Dr Singh’s tenure as prime minister, the then-home minister P Chidambaram announced the Centre’s commitment to carving out Telangana as a separate state. The Srikrishna Committee was formed to make its recommendations and submitted its report in December 2011.

However, as the Congress party dilly-dallied over the recommendations for the next three years, trying to get the timing right, just before the elections, the Dr Manmohan Singh government was forced to get the Bill passed in both the Houses of Parliament even as the parliamentarians from Andhra Pradesh, cutting across party lines tried to stop the passage of the Bill, displaying physical aggression as well.

The Lok Sabha was forced to stop the live telecast as pepper spray was used by an aggrieved MP of the ruling party and the government ran the roughshod to ensure that the AP Reorganisation Bill was passed in the Lower House. In the Rajya Sabha, the Bill almost fell through with both M Venkaiah Naidu and Arun Jaitley cornering the government over AP’s loss.

It was then that Dr Singh, who came to the rescue of the treasury benches and gave his verbal assurance on the floor of the House, promised special status to Andhra Pradesh and declared Polavaram as a national project.

He also realised that the residual state would end up as a revenue deficit and agreed to compensate for it. However, Congress lost all three elections – the Lok Sabha and the Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana held simultaneously and his successor government refused to abide by his promises.