Telangana Congress, TDP legislators to quit Monday

Hyderabad: Bowing to pressure from the people of Telangana, Congress MPs, ministers and legislators from the region in Andhra Pradesh decided to resign Monday. Legislators of main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) from the region have also announced they would quit the same day.

Within an hour of the ruling party leaders decided to "sacrifice" their posts for the sake of a separate state, the Telangana leaders of TDP announced that they would also submit their resignations.

Unhappy over the delay in formation of a separate state and amid mounting pressure from pro-Telangana groups to quit, public representatives of Congress party held a meeting in Hyderabad to chalk out their future course of action.

After three-hour-long meeting, senior leader K. Keshava Rao told reporters that the MPs would submit their resignations to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar while the state legislators would hand over their papers to assembly Speaker N. Manohar.

Keshava Rao, who is a member of Rajya Sabha, said the members of the upper houses of parliament and the state legislature would also quit. He termed the decision a victory of the people.

Lok Sabha member Ponnam Prabhakar said since no decision had been taken on their demand to table a bill in parliament for carving out a separate state, they had no option but to take a tough decision.

"We are here not for posts but for people of Telangana," said Panchayat Raj Minister K. Jana Reddy while announcing the decision to resign.

He said all members of assembly, including ministers, would meet the assembly speaker at 11 a.m. Monday to submit their resignations. The members of the legislative council will submit their papers to council chairman K. Chakrapani.

Jana Reddy demanded that the central government should abide by its Dec 9, 2009 announcement to initiate the process for formation of separate Telangana state.

He said they had to take the decision as pressure was mounting on them from people to sacrifice their posts for the sake of a separate state.

The meeting was attended by seven MPs, eight ministers and 16 members of assembly. Keshava Rao said others could not attend for various personal reasons and the decision of the meeting would be conveyed to them.

One legislator T. Jayaprakash Reddy, who was present at the meeting, opposed the decision and said the resignations would destablise the government but would not help in formation of a separate state.

Congress has 12 Lok Sabha MPs from Telangana, which accounts for 17 out of 42 MPs from Andhra Pradesh.

The ruling party also has 50 members of assembly from Telangana, which sends 119 legislators to the 294-member house. The legislators include deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarsimha and 15 other ministers.

TDP legislators from Telangana region also have decided to resign on Monday. Welcoming the decision of Congress leaders, TDP legislators' forum convenor E. Dayakar Rao said they would also resign.

TDP has two MPs and 37 members of assembly from the region but it was not clear if the two MPs would also resign.

It may be recalled that following the Dec 9, 2009 statement of the centre, Congress and TDP legislators in Andhra and Rayalseema regions had submitted enmass resignations to oppose the state's bifurcation.
 

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