Vijayawada, December 24: Welcoming the statement of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram regaring Telangana in New Delhi last night, City Congress Chief Pyala Somi Naidu and MLC Illapuram Venkaiah today announced the withdrawal of their resignations with immediate effect.
Mr Chidambaram said yesterday that there was a need to hold a wide range of consultations with all political parties and groups on the issue of carving a separate Telangana state.
Addressing a press conference here, Mr Naidu said Vijayawada Congress MP Lagadapati Rajagopal, who had also resigned and undertaken a ‘fast-unto-death’ agitation on unified Andhra State, and party MLAs in Krishna district who toyed the same line would also withdraw their resignations.
He said the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) Congress corporators and Mayor who had also submitted their resignations would take back their resignations on an appeal made by Chief Minister K Rosaiah.
Mr Naidu said the agitations (after Mr Chidambaram made a statement on December nine that the process of initiating the separate Telangana state had begun) was held in Gandhian way without any violence in Vijayawada and elswhere in the district.
Thanking the UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party core committee members for taking a good decision without elaborating that there would be ‘Samikya Andhra Pradesh’ (united Andhra Pradesh) or giving separate Telangana state in future, the CityCongress Chief said the Union Home Minister had made a statement on behalf of the Centre only after taking the views of all the party leaders.
Speaking on the escape of Mr Rajagopal from Government General Hospital where he was admitted after the police marred his fast-unto-death few days ago, Mr Naidu said the MP had taken that step to take treatment at NIMS in Hyderabad due to lack of facilities in the hospital.
On the suspension of police personnel including the City Police Commissioner due to alleged negligence of duty facilitating the cinematic style escape of the MP from the hospital, he said Mr Rajagopal, MLA, Malladi Vishnu and former Minister Devineni Rajasekhar had already talked to Chief Minister and Home Minister P Sabita Indira Reddy and requested them that their suspension be revoked as the police personnel should not be faulted for the episode.
Meanwhile, Mylavaram Telugu Desam Party (TDP) legislator Devineni Umamaheswara Rao and former mayor and party leader Panchumarthy Anuradha who were on a fast-unto-death on the united Andhra Pradesh issue since the last 11 days– at the NRI Hospital in Managalagiri and Government General hospital here, had ended their fast after hailing the Centre’s statement on Telangana, last night.
–Agencies