Telangana: Spate of resignations puts Congress in a spot

Hyderabad, Aug 2: Three state minister and 26 Congress legislators in Andhra Pradesh resigned on Thursday to protest against the decision to carve out a separate Telangana out of the southern state. Minor irrigation minister TG Vankatesh, ports and infrastructure minister Ganta Srinivas Rao, law minister E Pratap Reddy and cooperation minister Kasu Krishna Reddy sent their resignation letters to Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy.

Meanwhile, of the 26 legislators who quit, 19 are MLAs and seven are MLCs. They were also joined by 17 TDP legislators, including 15 MLAs and two MLCs. While most of these legislators sent their resignation letters either to the Assembly Speaker or the chairman of the Legislative Council, a few of the Congress members sent their letters to Pradesh Congress Committee chief Botsa Satyanarayana.

The mass resignation resembled the 2009 situation when the decision on Telangana was suddenly declared but the resignations made the Centre to backtrack.

Besides the state legislators, 10 MPs and four central ministers also decided to quit on Friday.

The chief minister convinced some of the ministers against putting in their papers after a long meeting and also called a meeting of all Congress minister and legislators from the Seemandhra region on August 3 for a detailed discussion. He said he would convey their fear to the party high command.

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