Even as Union Minister and in charge of Andhra Pradesh affairs Gulam Nabi Azad and AICC general secretary Oscar Fernandez are camping in Hyderabad, a large number of state ministers, MPs and MLAs of the Congress party belonging to the Telangana region have decided to resign to if their demands for a separate state is not met.
About nine ministers, 21 MLAs, seven MPs and nine MLCs took part in a marathon meeting this morning to discuss the future course of action in the light of the likely announcement of a regional council for Telangana by the Centre instead of separate state.
Announcing their decision, Panchayat Raj Minister K Jana Reddy and MP and former Congress Working Committee (CWC) member K Keshava Rao said they will submit their resignations to the Speaker and Parliament at 11 am on Monday. The UPA government and the Congress high command have only two options —either announce the formation of Telangana as indicated in their statement on December 9, 2009, or accept our resignations, the leaders said.
The Congress has 53 MLAs (including 15 Cabinet ministers), seven Lok Sabha members, six Rajya Sabha members and nine MLCs from the Telangana region. It may be recalled that the Telangana political joint action committee (JAC) led by Osmania University professor Kodandaram had already announced mass agitations apart from targeting elected representatives demanding their resignations starting this month.
Though the elected representatives of the Congress party had initially considered launching various protest programmes, including hunger strike, before taking a drastic political decision, most had later concluded that they would lose credibility in the eyes of the people of Telangana if they adopt a 'wait and watch' policy.
Today’s meeting was preceded by hectic consultations between Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) and senior Congress leaders in the past couple of days where they had come to an understanding that both parties would work together to mount pressure on the UPA government to achieve their demand.