Comments
The Telangana issue continues to rattle the Congress leadership. Seven party MPs from Andhra Pradesh — six from Lok Sabha and one from Rajya Sabha — submitted their resignations on Friday. However, the MPs’ efforts to put pressure on four Central Ministers from the Seemandhra region to resign did not succeed.
The Congress top leadership has apparently conveyed to the four Central Ministers — Pallam Raju, D. Purandeshwari, Killi Kruparani and J. D. Seelam — that the Congress Working Committee’s decision to bifurcate the State was final and their resignations would weaken the party’s position in the State. The MPs said the decision was in the interest of the party in the region and that they would continue to support the Congress.
The Ministers met the Congress General Secretary in-charge of the State, Digvijaya Singh, whose intervention is said to have divided the MPs from the region. Congress spokesperson Bhakta Charan Das said all the issues would be settled amicably by the party leadership.
The resignations are also being interpreted as a strategy by the party leadership to distract from the ongoing tension in the Seemandhra region. Protests against the Congress Working Committee’s decision to bifurcate the State had started soon after its announcement in New Delhi.
The YSR Congress said leaders of the Telugu Desam Party and the Congress were enacting a ‘resignation drama’ to hijack the protests that had erupted in Seemandhra. “It could be a total sell-out if the people who are leading the movement yield to their theatrics,” the party’s spokesperson Ambati Rambabu said. “We wrote to the Centre that the issue should be sorted out like a family matter if the division is inevitable and work out a solution that is agreeable to all concerned. The suggestion was not taken in the right spirit and the announcement was made unilaterally,” Rambabu added.
The MPs who have resigned are A. Sai Prathap, Anantha Venkatarami Reddy, C.V. Harsha Kumar, Vundavalli Arun Kumar, Lagadapati Rajagopal, S.P.Y. Reddy and K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao. They claimed that Lok Sabha members Sabbam Hari, Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy and Rayapati Sambasiva Rao had also faxed their resignations to the Speaker’s office. The resignations, however, have not been accepted by the offices of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.