Andhra crisis: 83 Telangana MLAs, 10 MPs quit

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Congress MPs from Telangana shout slogans in front of Parliament after submitting their resignations to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira

In possibly the biggest such political action in India, 83 state legislators, including 11 state ministers, from the Congress, Telugu Desam, Praja Rajyam and Independents, and 10 MPs submitted their resignations as planned on Monday, plunging Telangana into turmoil and the Andhra Pradesh government into a crisis.

While the state legislators submitted their resignations from the Assembly amid much celebration and slogan-shouting to deputy speaker Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka in Hyderabad, the Lok Sabha members called on Speaker Meira Kumar to submit their resignations in New Delhi. Mr K. Keshav Rao, a Rajya Sabha member, handed his letter to the officer on special duty in the office of vice-president Hamid Ansari.
At the end of the day, 83 legislators had submitted their resignation letters: 41 from the Congress, including 11 ministers, 33 from TDP (four rebels having given their letters on Sunday), two from the Praja Rajyam and three Independents.
The Andhra Pradesh ministers did not submit their resignations from the state Cabinet.
Of the 118 MLAs from Telangana — one seat, Dichpally, is vacant — the TRS (11 MLAs), MIM (7 MLAs), CPI (4), CPM (1), BJP (2) Lok Satta (1) were not part of the resignation move.
Those have not yet submitted their resignations are Mr C. Damodar Raja Narasimha, Mr Danam Nagender, Mr Mukesh Kumar Gowd, Dr P. Shanker Rao (all ministers); Ms Manemma Anjayya, Mr Marri Shashidhar Reddy, Mr T. Jayaprakash Reddy, Mr Mitrasen (all Congress MLAs) and also the deputy speaker, Mr Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka.
In New Delhi, Mr Keshav Rao said the move was not a “gimmick,” and that they were quitting to identify themselves with the people of the region. “On December 9, 2009, the Centre virtually announced a separate Telangana state. But it has not been implemented. We have been persuading them. Now we are helpless before the people of Telangana,” he said. The MPs may consider withdrawing their resignations if the Centre gives a “concrete assurance” within a timeframe, he said.
In Hyderabad, Telangana MLAs and their supporters entered the Assembly buildings in batches and submitted their resignations one by one in the approved format under Rule 186. The resignation letters appeared complete in all respects.
The first to submit his resignation was Mr P. Vishnuvardhan Reddy (Congress, Jubilee Hills), who reached the Assembly around 9.30 am. However, he cited some conditions in his resignation letter. Advised that the resignation should be unconditional, he later sent another letter tendering his resignation as per the rules.
The TDP contingent turned up next, much ahead of the deadline. They waited a brief while to see if a majority of Congress members would submit their papers, but then went ahead and resigned anyway.
The Assembly Speaker, Mr Nadendla Manohar, who is now on a tour of the United States, is expected to return to Hyderabad on July 9 and then consider the resignations.
Almost at the same time, 13 members of the Legislative Council from the Congress and three MLCs from the Telugu Desam submitted their resignations to deputy chairman Neti Vidyasagar.
Of the 17 Lok Sabha members from Telangana, 12 belong to the Congress — of whom nine MPs resigned. The three Congress Lok Sabha members who did not resign are Union petroleum minister S. Jaipal Reddy, Mr Sarve Satyanarayana and Mr Anjan Kumar Yadav.
The MPs who resigned are Mr Ponnam Prabhakar, Mr G.S. Reddy, Mr M. Jagannath, Mr S. Rajaiah, Mr P. Balram Nayak, Mr G. Vivekanand and Mr K. Rajagopal Reddy (all Lok Sabha) and Mr K. Keshav Rao (Rajya Sabha). Mr Madhu Yashki is away in the US, and Mr Suresh Shetkar was at the side of his ailing mother. Both submitted their resignations through their colleagues.
Two TDP MPs, Mr Nama Nageswara Rao and Mr Ramesh Rathod, said they would submit their resignations on Tuesday. The MIM (Mr Asaduddin Owaisi) and TRS (Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Ms Vijayashanti) are not part of the plan.
Of the five Rajya Sabha members from Telangana, Mr Keshav Rao has resigned while Mr G. Sanjeeva Reddy, Mr Nandi Yellaiah, Mr V. Hanumantha Rao and Mr M.A. Khan have not yet resigned.
The resignations of 83 MLAs beats the resignation of 43 MLAs on December 24, 2009. That action followed Union home minister P. Chidambaram’s announcement in which he withdrew his earlier statement of December 9 on a Central initiative on the process of forming a Telangana state.
However, those resignations were not in the prescribed format and then Speaker N. Kiran Kumar Reddy rejected all of them, except that of Mr Chennamaneni Ramesh of the Telugu Desam.