Hyderabad, July 05: A day after 75 MLAs from the Congress and TDP resigned for the Telangana cause, the TRS and BJP too jumped on the resignation bandwagon on Tuesday.
Eleven TRS legislators and two from the BJP have announced they would give up their Assembly membership today, in support of the demand for a separate Telangana state. Earlier in the day, TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao and party MP Vijay Shanthi too resigned from their Lok Sabha membership.
A dozen Congress MPs had also put in their papers yesterday.
Two TDP MPs also resigned from Lok Sabha today in protest against the Centre’s delay in the formation of a separate state.
The MPs Nama Nageswara Rao, also the TDP Parliamentary Party leader, and Ramesh Rathod met Speaker Meira Kumar and tendered their resignation.
All the MLAs and MPs who have resigned or are going to do so are from the Telangana region.
State Textiles Minister Shankar Rao, who is in the US, has also faxed his resignation to the Deputy Speaker, taking the total number of state ministers who have quit to 12. However, Rao has only resigned from the Assembly and not from the Cabinet.
TRS and the Telangana political Joint Action Committee (JAC) have been demanding en masse resignations by MPs, MLAs of Congress and TDP to force the Centre to accept the separate statehood demand.
In the meantime, Congress ministers, MPs and MLAs from Telangana today met senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and explained as to why they had put in their papers and also agreed to participate in discussions on the issue.
Senior minister K Jana Reddy told reporters after the meeting that they will continue to discuss the issue of formation of a separate Telangana state with the high command.
Azad, after meeting party’s Telangana representatives, called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to apprise him of the situation.
The resignations also come in the wake of groups pressing for a separate state of Telangana stepping up pressure on MPs, ministers and legislators from the region who have not yet resigned.
Activists of the TRS, the JAC as well as students today laying siege to the houses of such leaders, demanding that they resign immediately.
The TRS and JAC described them as “traitors”.
While most of the 119 Members of Assembly from the region have already resigned, the rest are reluctant. Five MPs, including Union Petroleum Minister S Jaipal Reddy, have also not yet submitted their resignations.
Also on Tuesday, life came to a standstill across Telangana region as a two-day shutdown called by the Telangana JAC evoked total response in Hyderabad and nine other districts.
Hundreds of commuters were stranded as public transport went off the roads. Shops, business establishments and educational institutions were closed to press the Central government to table a bill in parliament to carve out a separate state of Telangana.
Barring minor incidents, the shutdown was peaceful till afternoon, police said.
-Agencies