Following the Congress high command’s decision to drag on the Telangana issue, the seven Cong MPs of Telangana have decided to put in their papers.
Ministers from the region too have decided to exert pressure on their leadership, but will stick on to their posts. They also made it clear that they had not set any deadline for their high command to resolve the T-issue.
As the Centre’s self-imposed deadline for a decision on Telangana ended without any positive word from either the Union government or the AICC leadership, MPs G Vivekanand, Manda Jagannadham, Madhu Yashki Goud, Gutta Shukhender Reddy, Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy, Siricilla Rajaiah and Ponnam Prabhakar decided to quit as per their earlier decision.
The seven MPs met at the residence of Vivekanand here on Monday afternoon under the leadership of former PCC chief K Kesava Rao.
After a long discussion on their future course of action, the MPs resolved to write a letter to their party chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday urging her to deliver T-state immediately. They also decided to attach their resignation letters in “proper format” to that letter.
“In the letter, we will ask our party boss either to deliver Telangana state or accept our resignations,” said Rajgopal Reddy soon after the meeting.
According to sources, Ponnam and Madhu Yashki at first opposed the idea of resignations, saying if they quit, it would be difficult for them to raise the T-issue during the ensuing budget session of Parliament. After much churning, all the seven MPs decided to quit.
Soon, Rajagopal Reddy came out from the meeting and told the media that they would resign from their posts.
When asked about the differences among the MPs, Manda Jagannadham said at first there was some difference of opinion, but all agreed subsequently.
Madhu Yashki came down heavily on the TRS leadership, alleging that the pink party’s only aim was to get more seats in 2014 polls.
Meanwhile, nine ministers from Telangana met in the chamber of panchayat raj minister K Jana Reddy in the secretariat here and discussed the T-issue. Soon after the meeting, the ministers addressed the media along with Jana Reddy.
Reddy said as they had confidence in their high command, they were not going to quit their posts. All the ministers from the T-region would put in their papers if the AICC leadership fails to keep its promise on Telangana statehood, he added.
Jana Reddy fired a broadside at the TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao as well as former minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy.
He wondered why Telangana protagonists do not believe his words that the Congress high command would deliver T-state soon, while they kept faith in KCR’s statements on many occasions before that the T-state would be a reality soon.
The ministers too were shocked by the AICC leadership’s decision to drag on the process of consultations, Jana Reddy said.