Hyderabad, July 4: The Telangana Telugu Desam Forum has put a rider for its members’ resignations from the Assembly. The TDP MLAs from the region will resign only if a majority of the Congress legislators quit as announced at 11 am on July 4.
The TTDF, which met at the TDLP office here on Sunday, resolved that its members would submit their resignations in the prescribed format to the Assembly speaker at the same time on Monday if a majority of the Congress MLAs preceded them, TTDF convener E Dayakar Rao told Express.
“It does not matter to us even if a few ministers and around 10 to 15 Congress MLAs do not resign. Of the 52 Congress MLAs from the region, a majority are willing to resign. If they resign, Telangana TDP MLAs will follow suit,” Dayakar Rao said and congratulated the Telangana Congress MLAs on coming forward to resign.
The TDP has 37 MLAs, three MPs and eight MLCs from the region. Of the MLAs, four belong to Nagam Janardhan Reddy’s group and they have already submitted their resignations.
“We will not impose any conditions on the resignations. We will give our resignations in the proper format,” an MLA said.
TDP MLAs claimed that they had the approval of party chief N Chandrababu Naidu for their decision to resign. “Naidu has already directed us to step up the agitation for Telangana. We are following his direction,” said another MLA.
Speaking to reporters later, Dayakar Rao said: “The resignations of MLAs should create a constitutional crisis but not lead to by-elections which will not help in furthering the Telangana cause in any way.” Dayakar Rao claimed that there were no difference among Telangana TDP MLAs and all of them would resign. “Four MLAs, who are in the US, will send their resignations through fax. If the speaker does not accept the faxed letters, they will submit fresh resignations on their return on July 9,” he said.
Another MLA Motkupalli Narasimhulu hoped that the Congress high command would wilt under the pressure created by the resignations, and accept the demand for a separate Telangana state. “If the Congress fails to address the issue even after the resignations, people will teach it a lesson. As for the TDP, it will intensify its agitation,” Narasimhulu said.
TDP leaders appealed to MLAs of all the parties to submit their resignations.
As per the schedule, the TTDF will again meet at the TDLP office on Monday. The MLAs will proceed to the Gun Park opposite the Assembly and pay tributes to T-martyrs. From there they will troop to the speaker’s chamber at 11 am to hand over their letters of resignation, only if they are sure that a majority of Congress MLAs have had submitted their resignations by then.
–Agencies