Cabinet wants ministers in each district to ensure that resignations of MLAs are withdrawn
Cutting across party lines, 93 legislators hailing from Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions of Andhra Pradesh today submitted their resignation letters to state Assembly Speaker N Kiran Kumar Reddy in protest against the Centre’s decision to initiate the process of forming a separate Telangana state.
“I will be calling every signatory to the resignation letter before I take any decision,” the Speaker said, adding that he had received resignation letters of 53 Congress legislators, 29 Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLAs and 11 Praja Rajyam Party legislators.
The Congress government in the state also reacted fast to diffuse the crisis. The Cabinet, in a rare decision, asked the ministers in charge of each district to ensure that the resignations of the MLAs belonging to that area are withdrawn. In other words, the party high command wants the Jaganmohan lobby to actively participate in firefighting inside the party.
The Centre’s decision on Telangana seemed to have opened a Pandora’s box in Andhra Pradesh in the form of new demand for separate states for Andhra, Rayalaseema and even north-coastal Andhra, bordering Orissa.
This apart, there is a demand for according the Union Territory status to Hyderabad. “If the creation of Telangana state becomes inevitable, then we want Hyderabad to be made a Union Territory,” Congress ministers Mukesh Goud and D Nagender, who hail from the city, said.
The Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), which has considerable influence in the Muslim-dominated Hyderabad, is also in favour of declaring Hyderabad as a Union Territory. Muslims constitute nearly 40 per cent of Hyderabad’s population. The MIM represents Hyderabad in the Lok Sabha and has five legislators in the Assembly.
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The first linguistic state to be formed in the country in 1956, Andhra Pradesh has three distinct regions — Telangana, coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema. The state capital is part of Telangana, which accounts for 119 of the total 294 seats in the Assembly and 17 of the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies.
With political crisis in the state deepening, Chief Minister K Rosaiah urged the legislators to maintain calm. He pointed out that a resolution seeking a separate statehood for Telangana could be adopted by the Assembly only with consent of the majority of the members. Rosaiah also convened an emergency meeting of his Cabinet in the evening.
Meanwhile, supporters of an ‘integrated’ Andhra Pradesh have called for a shutdown on Friday in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema districts.