Hyderabad: The efforts by the Congress high command to pursue Telangana MPs to withdraw their resignations and attend the Parliament session Monday proved futile as nine members of the Lok Sabha (lower house) and one member of Rajya Sabha (upper house) stayed away.
Though the AICC General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad made a last ditch effort as he spoke to senior Rajya Sabha member K. Keshav Rao to urge the MPS to withdrawal their resignations, they made it clear that they cannot do so without the central government making a categor ical statement on the Telangana statehood issue.
Along with the Congress MPs, two Lok Sabha members from Telangana Rashtra Samiti and Telugu Desam, and one Rajya Sabha member from Telugu Desam also stayed away from the Parliament. They submitted their resignations last month demanding a Telangana state. The Congress MPs held a meeting in New Delhi to discuss their strategy ahead of a meeting with Azad.
Madhu Yashki, a Telangana Lok Sabha member from the Congress party, said that the MPs had no intention to withdraw their resignation.
Sticking to their guns
"There is no truth in the reports that some of the MPs were going back on their resignations", he said.
Yashki said that the future course of action depends on the decision the Lok Sabha speaker takes regarding the resignations.
Meanwhile, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K. Chandrashekhar Rao has triggered off a major row by saying that "consuming poison to die appears much better than living in the present humiliating condition".
