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| Telangana Congress MPs, MLAs decide to resign |
| BS Reporter / Chennai/ Hyderabad Jul 02, 2011, 00:47 IST |
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Even as Union Minister and in charge of Andhra Pradesh affairs Gulam Nabi Azad and AICC general secretary Oscar Fernandez are camping in Hyderabad, a large number of state ministers, MPs and MLAs of the Congress party belonging to Telangana have decided to resign in support of their demand for separate statehood.
About nine ministers, 21 MLAs, seven MPs and nine MLCs took part in a marathon meeting that started today morning to discuss the future course of action in the light of the likely announcement of a regional council for Telangana by the Centre instead of separate statehood.
Announcing their decision, Panchayat Raj minister K Jana Reddy and MP and former Congress Working Committee (CWC) member K Keshava Rao said they all would submit their resignations to the Speaker and Parliament at 11 am on Monday. The UPA government and the Congress high command have only two options --either announce the formation of Telangana as indicated in their statement on December 9, 2009, or accept our resignations, the leaders said.
The Congress has 53 MLAs (of them 15 are cabinet ministers), 7 Lok Sabha members, 6 Rajya Sabha members and 9 MLCs from the Telangana region. These leaders feel that once they submit resignations, the rest would also follow.
It may be recalled that the Telangana political joint action committee (JAC) led by Osmania University professor Kodandaram had already announced mass agitations apart from targeting elected representatives demanding their resignations starting this month.
Though the elected representatives of the Congress had initially considered launching various protest programmes, including hunger strike, before taking any drastic political decision, most of them later concluded that they would lose credibility in the eyes of the people of Telangana if they adopt a 'wait and watch' policy.
The meeting today was preceded by hectic consultations between Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) and senior Congress leaders in the past couple of days where they had come to an understanding that both the parties would work together to mount pressure on the UPA government to achieve their demand.
KCR had proposed to the Congress leaders that in the event of byelections, Congress and TRS members would contest on a single platform outside political identities.
Soon after the Congress leaders announced their decision today, members of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) from the Telangana region decided to hold a meeting to make similar announcement.
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