Two senior Congress MLAs and former ministers J C Diwakar Reddy and D L Ravindra Reddy today resigned from their post in protest against the party’s decision to carve out a separate state of Telangana.
While Diwakar Reddy represents Tadipatri Assembly constituency in the backward Anantapur district, Ravindra Reddy is from Mydukuru in Kadapa district of Rayalaseem.
Both were strong proponents of a unified state.
Informed sources said TDP MLA Ramakrishna from Venkatagiri in Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore district too resigned. But TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu is said to be dissuading his party MLAs from doing so.
Congress sources said many more MLAs from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema have said they would resign ahead of the proposed resolution in the Assembly seeking creation of Telangana state.
Several ministers and MLAs hailing from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions have strongly decried the Congress high command's "unilateral decision" to initiate the process for bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
The Congress legislators from these regions are in consultation with their colleagues in Telugu Desam Party and trying to muster support against the division of the state.