Telangana MPs, MLAs Quit; Non-Telangana Reps Withdraw Resignation
After the Centre put creation of Telangana state on backburner due to the breakdown of the political consensus on the issue, TRS has announced the resignation of its MPs and MLAs and called for a two-day shutdown in the region. In addition, Congress MPs from the region have also decided to quit.
Yesterday night, TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao resigned and so far eight TRS MLAs have put in their papers in protest against the Centre’s alleged betrayal on the Telangana issue.
Rao, who is a Lok Sabha member from Mahabubnagar, sent his resignation letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker late last night.
“The party’s MLAs have also resigned over the Centre’s betrayal on the Telangana statehood demand,” senior TRS legislator T Harish Rao said.
In the meantime, Congress MP Madhu Yashki Goud from Nizamabad and his colleague Ponnam Prabhakar from Karimnagar said that they had decided to quit respecting the sentiments of the people of the region.
A meeting will be held at the residence of Nalgonda MP G Sukhender Reddy in New Delhi in which all Congress MPs from the region will take part to take a decision about whether they would submit their resignations to Congress president Sonia Gandhi or Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.
Goud charged that Congress parliamentarians belonging to coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions went against party’s decision on the Telangana issue and took resort to blackmail tactics.
Also, he held faction loyal to YS Jaganmohan Reddy responsible for the impasse.
“The same people who earlier tried to blackmail the party are responsible for this situation,” he said referring to Jaganmohan Reddy’s attempts to become chief minister after his father YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s death in a helicopter crash.
The Nizamabad MP alleged that KVP Ramachandra Rao, Rajya Sabha member and close aide of the late chief minister, was behind the en mass resignations of the legislators from Andhra and Rayalaseema after the Dec 9 statement by the centre to initiate the process of forming a Telangana state.
However, party MPs from non-Telangana region have expressed satisfaction over Centre’s fresh statement and decided to withdraw their resignation
“This is what we wanted. We wanted our views to be considered. So we have decided to withdraw our resignations,” Congress legislator and government Whip S Sailajanath told
reporters.
He, however, said that Union home minister P Chidambaram’s statement calling for wide-ranging consultations with all political parties and groups on the Telangana issue, can not be termed as victory or defeat for anybody.
Yesterday, Union Minister P Chidambaram had said without outrightly rejecting the demand for Telagana that there was the need for wide-ranging consultations with all stakeholders on the issue.
“A large number of political parties are divided on the issue. There is a need to hold wide-ranging consultations with all political parties and groups in the state,” the minister had said.
