The MPs, state ministers and legislators from the Telangana region would submit their resignations on Monday. The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs would submit their resignation to Lok Sabha speaker and Rajya Sabha Chairman respectively at 11 AM on Monday.
The MLAs and MLCs would submit their resignation at the same time to concerned authorities in Hyderabad. The legislators of main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) from Telangana have also decided to quit the same day.
Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member K. Keshava Rao and Lok Sabha members G. Vivek and Ponnam Prabhakar ruled out going back on their decision.
Stating that resignations alone will not help in achieving the goal of separate Telangana state, Keshava Rao told media that they will actively participate in the movement.
“The entire parliament is for Telangana. All the major parties have already supported the demand,” Keshava Rao said, adding that consensus was evolved through consultations over last one-and-half years.
He said that after considering all aspects, the central government on December 9, 2009, announced that the process for formation of separate Telangana state would be initiated. He also criticised the then chief minister K. Rosaiah for not moving a resolution in the assembly in line with the central government’s announcement.
Keshava Rao termed as ‘unwarranted’ Azad’s statement that the Telangana issue is linked to other states and other regional parties have to be consulted.
“The people of Telangana are expecting us to quit our posts for achieving separate statehood. Due to the delay in the formation of Telangana, there is an impression that we are not quitting our posts out of lust for power,” Andhra Panchayat Raj Minister K. Jana Reddy said.
“Now we are in a situation that we have to prove that we are not hankering for power. Hence we decided to submit our resignations on July 4,” he said after a meeting of the leaders from the region attended by seven MPs, 18 MLAs, nine MLCs and nine ministers.
The decision to resign ‘has been taken keeping people’s aspirations in mind and it is hoped that the party leadership would understand our predicament’, he said.
The Telangana Congress leaders have been pleading with the central leadership for the last two years to implement the announcement made by the Centre on 9 December 2009 to form separate Telangana, Jana Reddy said.
Congress leaders from Telangana had recently met the Congress leadership in Delhi and set a June end deadline to take a positive decision.
There are 294 seats in the AP assembly. Around 50 MLAs, 11 MPs and 16 MLCs of the Congress are from Telangana region.
The Congress core group, including party president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had met for the second time on June 18 to find a solution to the Telangana statehood demand amid threats by party MPs, MLAs and ministers from the region to quit en masse if a decision on the issue was not taken soon.
However, no final decision could be taken.
The issue of Telangana has witnessed a sharp division along regional lines in the Congress in Andhra Pradesh, the only major state where the party is in power on its own.