New Delhi, Jul 5: Two TDP MPs from Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh today resigned from Lok Sabha in protest against the Centre's delay in the formation of a separate state, a day after their counterparts from Congress put in their papers.
The MPs - Nama Nageswara Rao, also the TDP Parliamentary Party leader, and Ramesh Rathod - met Speaker Meira Kumar here and tendered their resignation. The move comes a day after 10 Congress MPs from the region resigned, mounting pressure on the Centre and their party High Command to take an early decision on the statehood demand.
After meeting the Speaker, Rao told PTI that they resigned in protest against the delay in formation of a separate Telangana state.
“The Centre should go by its December 9, 2009 statement in which it announced that steps would be initiated for the formation of a separate Telangana state,” he said. On P Chidambaram's statement that the Centre is yet to take a final decision on the issue, Rao said the Home Minister was “totally responsible” for the current situation. “Chidambaram is totally responsible for the situation. This situation was created by the Centre after the December 9, 2009 statement and it will have to resolve it,” the TDP leader said.
Rao said they also urged the Speaker to ask the government to take an early decision on the issue.
In Hyderabad, following en masse resignation of Congress and TDP MLAs from Telangana region, all 11 MLAs of Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) today resigned from their posts on the separate statehood demand.
Led by their floor leader in the Assembly E Rajender, five TRS legislators submitted their resignations to the Legislature Secretary as both the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker were not available.
Three other TRS MLAs, who were out of Hyderabad, faxed their resignations, while the three suspended MLAs of the party submitted their resignations later in the Assembly. “Our intention is to build pressure on the Centre on the statehood issue by creating a crisis with the resignation of more than 100 MLAs,” Rajender said.
TRS MLA and party president K Chandrasekhar Rao's son K T Rama Rao told PTI that the Congress government in the state had no right to continue in office as the legislators from Telangana have quit en masse.
CPI Deputy General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy said his party, which has four MLAs, would decide on resignations after the party's state secretary K Narayana would return from abroad.
The CPI MLAs have indicated that they are ready to quit their posts for Telangana.
81 MLAs and 10 MPs from Telangana quit their posts yesterday in support of the separate statehood demand. PTI
