13 congress legislators resigns as protest over Telangana
Hyderabad: Two days after the Centre put its stamp of approval on the proposal to carve out a new state Telangana, Andhra Pradesh Minister of Infrastructure and Investment Ganta Srinivasa Rao put in his papers.
Compounding the woes for the ruling Congress, a spate of resignations followed with nine party MLAs and four MLCs putting in their papers. The MLAs handed over their papers to the the Secretary of the Legislative Assembly, while the MLCs forwarded their letters to the Council Chairman.
The MLAs who resigned are J C Diwakar Reddy, Gade Venkat Reddy, Daggubati Venkateswara Rao, Venkataramaiah, Murali Krishna, Ugranarasimha Reddy, Bangaru Usharani, K Sudhakar and C Adinarayana Reddy.
The MLCs who quit are Mohammed Jani, Rudraraju Padma Raju, Gade Srinivasulu Naidu and Paladugu Venkat Rao. Though it was expected that about 30 legislators would put in their papers but only 13 eventually did.
One more MLA K Nageswara Rao claimed he had submitted his resignation to Andhra Pradesh Congress President Botsa Satyanarayana.
In his resignation letter addressed to Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Ganta said his conscience was not permitting him to continue as a Cabinet minister as the recent developments (over the state’s bifurcation) were against the ‘wishes, sentiments and aspirations’ of the people.
