Statehood struggle enters new phase

Hyderabad: Even as more than 90 Telangana legislators and 14 members of Parliament from Telangana have sent their resignations in protest against Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram's latest statement, the struggle for separate Telangana has entered a new and decisive phase.

Almost all the political leaders of the region rising above party affiliations came on one platform to declare that their fight will continue till central government takes steps for the formation of Telangana state.

Meanwhile, the state ministers belonging to Telangana have also started submitting their resignations. Minister for information and technology K. Venkat Reddy from Nalgonda was first to submit his resignation Thursday.

Of the 12 Congress MPs from Telangana, 11 have sent their resignations to party president Sonia Gandhi. The lone MP and the minister S. Jaipal Reddy was also under pressure to quit.

Members of parliament and assembly and other leaders of Congress, Telugu Desam, Telangana Rashtra, Samiti, BJP and the Praja Rajyam Party gathered on a single platform under the banner of Telangana Joint Action Committee in Hyderabad and issued a warning to the central government that if it does not initiate the constitutional process for the formation of Telangana, the region will burst in to fire.

"Even your military will not be able to control the situation," thundered Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K. Chandrasekhara Rao, the brain behind the move to bring all the parties together.

The legislators who have resigned include 39 of TDP, Congress, all 10 of TRS, two of PRP, two of the BJP and two independents.

The top leaders to resign our: Congress leader G. Venkat Swamy, Ch Rajeshwara Rao; TDP, Ch Vidyasagar Rao; BJP, and former speaker K.R. Suresh Reddy.

Kodanda Ram, head of Telangana Intellectuals Forum, will lead the Joint Action Committee and its future course of action will be finalised today.

Meanwhile, the JAC has called off today's Telangana protest in view of Christmas. The decision to call of second day's strike was taken on the request of All India Christian Council.