Telangana Joint Action Committee calls for two-day bandh from today.
The agitation for a separate statehood for Telangana in Andhra Pradesh intensified on Monday with 78 of the 119 legislators from the region resigning from the Assembly and the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Telangana calling for a two-day bandh from tomorrow demanding immediate decision from the UPA government in favour of bifurcation of the state.
Those who submitted resignations included 11 of the 15 ministers representing the region in the state Cabinet and all 37 members from the Opposition Telugu Desam party, including four members who recently broke away from the TDP on the issue of Telangana.
Besides the ministers, 28 members of a total of 53 ruling Congress members elected from the region submitted their resignation letters to deputy Speaker Bhatti Vikramarka.
Also about 12 members from the Congress and 3 members from TDP in the state Legislative Council have submitted their resignation letters to the Council chairman.
In Delhi, 9 out of 12 Lok Sabha members and one member out of six Rajya Sabha members representing the Congress in Telangana also submitted their resignations to the Lok Sabha speaker and chairman of the Upper House respectively.
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Announcing a five-day agitational programme in support of the resigned representatives of the people, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president, K Chandrasekhara Rao, said the agitation would be intensified further and continued till the formation of Telangana state.
Rao, who has been spearheading the movement for separate statehood, felt that the resignations would force the Centre to either announce Telangana state or impose President’s rule.
Besides the two-day bandh, the five-day programme of the JAC included taking out rallies, disrupting train traffic for two days and resorting to cooking on a mass scale on the roads.
On Friday last, the Congress leaders from Telangana announced their move to quit their posts today as a last resort to put pressure on the Centre.
The political joint action committee, meanwhile, has called for a two-day bandh starting tomorrow against the ‘indifferent attitude’ being shown by the Centre to the mass resignations submitted by the elected representatives of Telangana apart from launching other protest programmes in the next few days.
The number of Congress legislators joining this call for mass resignations swelled despite the last minute efforts of chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and Pradesh Congress Committee president Botcha Satynanarayana to dissuade them from taking the extreme step.
Efforts from the central leadership also proved ineffective, though a small group of Congress leaders headed by senior minister K Jana Reddy left for Delhi after tendering their resignations as the party high command summoned them to discuss the matter. However, it is not yet clear if the ministers who gave resignation letters to the deputy Speaker would also meet the Governor to hand over their resignations from the Cabinet as they had told earlier.
Talking to the media after meeting the deputy Speaker, state panchayat raj minister Jana Reddy said their resignations were only a reflection of the mood and aspirations of the people of Telangana and not aimed at either undermining the authority of party high command or creating instability in the government.
He said their hopes had redoubled as the day of mass resignations also was the day of American Independence and the day of martyrdom of Alluri Sitarama Raju, a legendary hero who waged armed rebellion against the British in Visakha agency areas and of Ilamma, who died fighting Nizam's forces in erstwhile Hyderabad state during the Telangana armed struggle.
In a surprise move, all the 33 TDP MLAs submitted their letters to the deputy Speaker before the arrival of the ruling party members on Monday morning switching their earlier stand that they would follow the path of resignations only if the majority MLAs from the Congress party submitted their papers.
Vikramarka told the members that the decision on their resignations would be taken only after Speaker Nadendla Manohar returns from the US on July 8.