Four TRS members resign from Lok Sabha

New Delhi, Mar 3 (UNI) Four members of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) led by K Chandra Shakher Rao today resigned from the Lok Sabha, protesting against the UPA Government's failure to fulfil their demand for a separate Telangana State.

The other three members B Vinod Kumar, Dharavath Ravinder Naik and Madhusudan Reddy, handed over their resignation letters to Speaker Somnath Chatterjee in the House during Question Hour after registering their protest and walked out.

Mr Chatterjee said he would go through the letters to ensure if proper procedure had been observed by the members while resigning from the House.

Earlier, Mr Rao said the UPA while forming the government four years back had given a very clear-cut assurance that their demand for a separate Telangana would be met. However the UPA had betrayed the people of the Telangana region.

''We are resigning in protest,'' he said, and along with other TRS members walked to the Chair to hand over their resignations.

Later, Leader of the Opposition L K Advani, speaking on the issue, pointed out that it was the first incident where members had handed over their resignations in the House.

He said President Pratibha Devisingh Patil's address to the joint sitting also did not have any word on Telangana.

The House witnessed an uproar when Mr Advani gave credit to the NDA for carving out three states of Uttrakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

As uproar continued, the BJP members made a symbolic walk out but return immediately protesting that their leader was not being allowed to speak on Telangana.

UNI KAS Mir KP1356