Hyderabad: Stepping up the pressure on Congress leadership to rescind its decision on Telangana, a minister, nine MLAs and four MLCs from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema today resigned as widespread protests continued in non-Telangana regions for the second day on Thursday.
Jittery over the fallout of the Telangana move in two other regions of Andhra Pradesh, two days after the Centre’s ruling UPA and Congress put their stamp of approval on the proposal to carve out a new state, 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.
Earlier, as many as 15 ministers and 26 legislators of the Congress party decided to submit resignations. They met at the ministers' quarters here to chalk out their future course of action. The ministers would meet Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy later to submit their resignations.
MPs who want a "united Andhra Pradesh" will meet in Delhi, the Congress MP from Guntur has already said he will quit. In Hyderabad, nearly 40 Congressmen, including 13 ministers and 20 MLAs, are meeting at Ministers' Quarters. They will then head out to talk to Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy. More resignations could be announced thereafter.
The Congress government in the state is functioning on depleted strength already in the 294-member Assembly and can ill-afford those resignations. It has 149 seats, two more than the halfway mark. There are 16 vacancies, caused by the disqualification of 15 rebels, nine of them Congressmen, loyal to Jagan Reddy's YSR Congress and the death of one MLA.
Kiran Kumar Reddy is in a spot, but has clear instructions from his party leadership that there will be no going back on the Telangana decision this time. He said as much to upset Congressmen who met him on Wednesday.
A message that Congress president Sonia Gandhi had also firmly handed to a group of these leaders who met her hours before the party's working committee announced the decision on Monday. She also reportedly instructed them to convince the people of Andhra Pradesh that a split would benefit them.
Meanwhile, protests against Andhra Pradesh's bifurcation continued unabated for the second consecutive day today with pro-united Andhra supporter taking out rallies and preventing public transport buses from plying. Protests were reported from various places in Krishna, East Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Kadapa and Anantapur districts.
While the hunger strike launched by students at Andhra University in Visakhaptnam entered its third day, lawyers did not attend courts as a part of their 72-hour boycott in Visakhapatnam and other districts. Some pro-united Andhra outfits have been observing a 72-hour shut down at places like Visakhapatnam. According to police, the situation was peaceful so far and no incident of violence was reported. Educational institutions and commercial establishments remained shut at several places in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema, reports reaching here said.
