Hyderabad, Jan 16 (IANS) Leaders of all-party Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Telangana Saturday began a hunger strike to demand that the central government immediately initiate the process for formation of the state.
Two legislators each of ruling Congress party and the main opposition Telugu Desam Party and leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) began the relay hunger strike at Indira Park here.

The joint hunger strike will continue till Jan 28 - the deadline set by the JAC for the central government to make an announcement on Telangana with a clear-cut time frame.

Leaders of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and other parties will also join the hunger strike.

Congress legislator R. Damodar Reddy hoped that the centre would make an announcement by Jan 28.

TDP leader N. Janardhan Reddy said all elected representatives — including legislators, MPs and ministers — should quit if the central government failed to make an announcement by Jan 28.

“We stand by the decision of the JAC. All 39 MLAs (legislators) from Telangana will press assembly speaker to accept their resignations if no decision is taken by Jan 28,” Janardhan Reddy said.

The 39 TDP legislators are among the 77 from Telangana who submitted their resignation to protest the Dec 23 statement by the central government. They alleged that the government had gone back on its Dec 9 statement to initiate the process for formation of Telangana state.

Meanwhile, serious differences have cropped up in the JAC over the issue of resignations. While JAC convenor M. Kodandaram, the TRS, the TDP and other parties said all elected representatives from village level bodies to parliament should quit to create a constitutional crisis in order to force the central government to initiate Telangana process, leaders from the Congress party are divided over the issue.

All 13 ministers, who withdrew their resignations early this month, and some legislators are against creating a crisis for their own government.

MP Sarve Satyanarayana, Congress’ chief whip Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and senior legislator K. Jana Reddy have opposed the proposal for pressing resignations to trigger a crisis.

Satyanarayana said those doing it would be the enemies of the party while Vikramarka alleged that a conspiracy was being hatched to topple Congress government.

Out of 119 legislators from Telangana, 77 had already submitted their resignations while JAC is planning to mount public pressure on the remaining legislators to resign. Out of 50 Congress legislators, 22 had submitted their resignations.