Telangana Row: All 13 Andhra Pradesh ministers withdraw resignations

Hyderabad, Dec 31 (ANI): All the 13 cabinet ministers from Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday decided to withdraw their resignations after the Centre's announcement on holding discussions with all recognised political parties of the state.

State Information Minister Geeta Reddy said the ministers are satisfied with the decision of the Centre to initiate the process of discussions.

On Wednesday, the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram sent a letter of invitation to all eight recognised political parties of the state-Congress, BJP, CPI, CPM, PRP, TDP, TRS and MIM.

"We met APCC President D. Srinivas who asked us to withdraw the resignations. We have decided to withdraw our resignations," said Geeta Reddy.

On December 23, the ministers had resigned after Chidambaram's announcement to put the Telangana issue on the backburner saying he would initiate wide ranging discussions on the issue.

Earlier on Dec 9, Chidambaram had announced the initiation of the Telangana state formation process.

Geeta Reddy said the ministers had last week submitted a representation to the Congress high command and "we never expected that they will respond so quickly."

She thanked Congress President Sonia Gandhi and other senior leaders including Union Finance Minster Pranab Mukherjee and political secretary to Congress president Ahmed Patel for taking the initiative to solve the issue.

The Centre's decision came after detailed deliberations in the government and at the highest level in the Congress in the last few days.

All parties were divided and even public representatives belonging to these parties were split on regional lines.

The all-party Joint Action Committee, formed to spearhead the separate Telangana agitation, and the TRS welcomed the announcement and decided to attend the meeting convened by the Centre. (ANI)