Thaindian News

Hyderabad, July 1 (IANS) Andhra Pradesh politics hotted up over the Telangana issue with Congress MPs, ministers and legislators from the region deciding to quit on Monday while the party central leadership asked them not to precipitate matters.

On a day of fast-paced developments in the presence of party’s central leader Gulam Nabi Azad in Hyderabad, the Congress leaders from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions also decided to step up pressure on the central leadership to keep the state united.

A delegation of Congress MPs and state legislators would leave for Delhi July 5 to meet party president Sonia Gandhi and others leaders to urge them not to bifurcate the state.

The leaders from Andhra and Rayalaseema met Azad Friday evening, hours after their counterparts in Telangana decided to quit.

Bowing to pressure from the people, the Telangana leaders said they would submit their resignations Monday. Legislators of main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) from the region have also announced they would quit the same day.

Unhappy over the delay in formation of a separate state and amid mounting pressure from pro-Telangana groups to quit, public representatives of the Congress party held a meeting in Hyderabad to chalk out their future course of action.

After a three-hour-long meeting, senior leader K. Keshava Rao told reporters that the MPs would submit their resignations to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar while the state legislators would hand over their papers to assembly Speaker N. Manohar.

Keshava Rao, who is a member of Rajya Sabha, said the members of the upper houses of parliament and the state legislature would also quit. He termed the decision a victory of the people.

Lok Sabha member Ponnam Prabhakar said since no decision had been taken on their demand to table a bill in parliament for carving out a separate state, they had no option but to take a tough decision.

“We are here not for posts but for people of Telangana,” said Panchayat Raj Minister K. Jana Reddy while announcing the decision to resign.

Congress has 12 Lok Sabha MPs from Telangana, which accounts for 17 out of 42 MPs from Andhra Pradesh.

The ruling party also has 50 members of assembly from Telangana, which sends 119 legislators to the 294-member house. The legislators include deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarsimha and 15 other ministers.

The TDP has two MPs and 37 members of assembly from the region but it was not clear if the two MPs would also resign.

Meanwhile, Azad advised Telangana leaders not to precipitate the matters by acting in haste.

Stating that the issue can’t be solved in one day, the central leader said a decision can be taken only after evolving consensus and taking into consideration the sentiments of all the regions.

Azad, who was in Hyderabad to attend a convention of Dalit Christians, told reporters that the Telangana issue is linked to other states.

“Bifurcation of a state is not a small issue. It is linked with other states of the country. Therefore, whatever we do we have to do carefully,” said Azad, who is in charge of party affairs in Andhra Pradesh.

In other developments, Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC), which is spearheading the movement for separate state, decided to intensify its campaign by organizing cook-and-eat protests on roads across Telangana July 10.

JAC convenor M. Kodandaram asked all public representatives to quit to mount pressure on the central government.