Andhra Assembly to witness a stormy session

Hyderabad, Dec 14 (ANI): A stormy session is expected today in the Andhra Assembly that meets after the weekend recess, as demands for the introduction of a resolution to carve out a Telangana State has heated up.

Speaker of the Andhra Assembly N Kiran Kumar Reddy is expected to adjourn the House for a week if the disruption continues, said sources.

The Centre's nod to initiate the process to form a new Telangana State has divided the state.

The state Congress unit faces a crisis as almost half of its MLAs have resigned in protest over the Telangana state issue. All of Sunday was spent in trying to defuse the crisis and restore political stability in the state.

D Srinivas, the Congress chief in Andhra Pradesh had on Sunday urged the MLAs to withdraw their resignations.

APCC president D Srinivas had said, "MLAs must withdraw resignations to avert a constitutional crisis."

Cutting across party lines, 135 MLAs resigned in a 294-member Assembly refusing to accept the Centre's nod for initiating the process of the formation of the Telangana State. Of these, 79 are from the Congress, 42 from the TDP and 16 from Chiranjeevi's Praja Rajyam Party (PRP).

With 20 ministers from the Rayalaseema regions threatening to resign on Saturday, other ministers belonging to the Telangana region met on Sunday to decide if they should quit too.

Vijayawada MP L Rajagopal, who had resigned over the Telangana issue, said on Sunday, "All 225 Congress MLAs will oppose the resolution in the assembly. Andhra will speak in one voice. Telangana means region of Telugu speaking people. We don't want to weaken the Telugu speaking states."

"Knit India, do not split India," he added.

Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on Chief Minister K Rosaiah who says that he was not in favour of moving a resolution on Telangana in the state assembly, but the Centre had paid no attention to his warning.

Earlier on December 9, Rosaiah told the Congress High Command that with the mass resignation of MLAs belonging to the non-Telangana region, it would be difficult to pass a resolution in the Andhra Assembly.

Senior Andhra Pradesh Congress leader J.C. Diwakar Reddy has urged the Union Government to send an emissary to clarify doubts raised by legislators representing the Rayalseema and coastal Andhra regions.

Commenting on the resignation of MLAs, Reddy had said: "The ball is in the court of the speaker. He however did not rule out the possibility of MLAs taking back the resignation in the event of the current crisis being resolved amicably."

Meanwhile, PRP chief Chiranjeevi met the Andhra Pradesh chief minister and asked him to ensure peace in the state. (ANI)