Angry MLAs quit over Telangana

Hyderabad: Politicians in coastal Andhra and Rayala Seema expressed their displeasure as the Indian government gave the go ahead for the formation of the Telangana state.

Telangana, meanwhile, remained awake throughout Wednesday night, savouring the announcement by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram.

At least 76 members of legislative assembly from the two regions belonging to the three major parties — ruling Congress, main opposition Telugu Desam Party and Praja Rajyam Party of actor Chiranjeevi — submitted their resignations to the Speaker, saying they cannot accept any move to divide the state.

Of the MLAs who resigned, 40 are from Congress, 15 from PRP and 21 are from the TDP.

Congress MLAs and members of legislative council from Telangana region lined up to thank Chief Minister K. Rosaiah for bringing the good news regarding the formation of Telangana state.

The Congress Member of Parliament from Vijaywada Lagdapati Rajagopal and Venkat Ram Reddy from Anantapur have announced their resignation from Lok Sabha and there was speculation of more Congress MPs including Kavuri Sambasiva Rao from Eluru, Rayapati Sambasiva Rao from Guntur and union minister of state and MP from Rajampet Sai Pratap mulling the resignations from Lok Sabha.

Meanwhile, the All India Congress Committee president Sonia Gandhi has convened a meeting of party MPs from Andhra and Rayala Seema region.

As the Congress party has a thin majority with 155 MLAs in a house of 294 MLAs, even resignation of 10 legislators is enough to bring down Rosaiah's government to a minority. The Speaker Kiran Kumar Reddy was set to meet the chief minister to discuss the issue.

The Congress MLAs submitting their resignations include J.C. Diwakar Reddy, D.L. Ravindra Reddy, Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, Anam Vivekananda Reddy, E. Pratap Reddy, Venkatram Reddy, Adi Narayana Reddy, Srikant Reddy, Gurunath Reddy, Shailajanath, Shahjehan, Jogi Ramesh, Veerasiva Reddy and K Nani.

TDP legislators whose names figure in the list of legislators quitting the house include Devineni Umamaheshwara Rao, Amaranth Reddy, Pardhasarthy, P. Keshav, K.E. Krishnamurthy and P. Raghunatha Reddy.

‘Conspiracy'

TDP member of legislative council Nannappaneni Rajkumari has submitted her resignation even as TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu was busy in persuading the angry legislators to remain patient.

Addressing a press conference TDP's Rao said that it was a conspiracy by the leaders of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to divide Andhra Pradesh to decrease the political importance of the state at the national level.

He pointed out that two key Congress leaders in the decision — M. Veerappa Moily and P Chidambaram — were from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu respectively.

"They have hatched a conspiracy to divide Andhra Pradesh…" Rao said.

Seventeen MLAs and MLCs of TDP from Krishna and Guntur districts of coastal Andhra have submitted their resignation saying they cannot accept the division of Andhra Pradesh.

The MLAs of PRP who have resigned include Vanga Geeta, Shobha Nagi Reddy, Kanna Babu, Nagi Reddy, Katasani Rami Reddy and Satyananda Rao.

Rosaiah, who returned from New Delhi after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Gandhi and others said that moving resolution in the assembly was the decision of the party high command and he had no role in it.