Hyderabad, February 14
The political turmoil over Telangana deepened today with 14 legislators from the region submitting their resignations in protest against the “unfavourable” terms of reference (ToR) of the Justice Srikrishna Committee set up by the Centre to decide on the statehood demand.
All 10 MLAs of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), two from the ruling Congress and one each from the BJP and the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) put in their resignation on papers.
The main Opposition, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) put a rider, saying that all its 39 legislators from the region were ready to quit only after the Congress members submitted their resignations. A lone TDP MLA Ch Ramesh from Karimnagar had already resigned from the Assembly and the party.
The resignations came two days after the Centre announced the ToR of the five-member panel which has been asked to go into the demand for bifurcation and also the demand for maintaining the status quo of united Andhra Pradesh.
The Telangana protagonists are unhappy over the clubbing together of the two demands and dubbed the ToR as “betrayal of Telangana cause”. They want a clear assurance on carving out the new state within a specific time frame.
Rejecting the ToR as “totally unacceptable”, an all-party Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) had asked the elected representatives from the region to quit their posts in protest yesterday.
While the TRS went ahead with the resignations, the Congress camp is divided over resignation issue. A majority of Congress leaders are not in favour of quitting their posts as such a course would create a constitutional crisis and push the state towards President’s rule.
However, two of the ruling party MLAs-R Damodar Reddy and Ch Muthyam Reddy-defied the party’s directive not to precipitate the matters and submitted their resignations to Speaker N Kirnakumar Reddy.
“We have sacrificed our posts for the cause of Telangana people. We expect others from the region to follow,” Damodar Reddy said.
Meanwhile, the JAC has set Feb 15 evening as the deadline for all elected reprsentatives across the political spectrum to resign and join the statehood agitation.
“If they fail to quit their posts by tomorrow evening, they will face social boycott. They will not be allowed to enter their constituencies,” the JAC convener Prof M Kodandaram said.
The JAC comprises representatives from the Congress, TRS, TDP, BJP and PRP.
In a strategic move to mount pressure on the ruling party, the TDP said the resignation letters of its legislators would be kept with the JAC convener and they would be submitted to the Speaker only after the Congress MLAs came forward to quit.
The Telangana region, comprising nine districts and Hyderabad, accounts for 119 legislators in the 294-member Assembly. The Congress has 50 and the TDP has 39 legislators. The BJP and PRP have two legislators each.
Meanwhile, the Speaker said that he would take a decision on the resignations as per the provisions of the Constitution and procedures of the Assembly.
The unfolding resignation drama is bound to have an impact on the budget session of the Assembly, beginning tomorrow. The legislators from Telangana have already threatened to boycott the session.
