Jagan loyals quit Congress, Andhra assembly

In a bid to exert pressure on the Andhra Pradesh government to go slow on probing amassing of wealth by Kadapa MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, 26 MLAs of the Congress tendered their resignations on Monday. The Jagan loyalists have also succeeded in roping in two MLAs from the N Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP and one from Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party (PRP).

The Congress MLAs resigned both from the assembly and the primary membership of the party and faxed the resignation letters to APCC headquarters.

The 26 MLAs, who submitted their resignations on Monday have been sailing with Jagan for the past few months.

The disqualification petitions are pending against seven of these MLAs, including one who did not resign on Monday.

Three Jagan-loyal MLAs from Telangana region did not submit their resignations claiming they had already put in their papers over the statehood issue.

Those who did not resign, include Konda Surekha, Jayasudha Kapoor and Kunja Satyavathi.

Though their earlier resignations were rejected by Speaker Nadendla Manohar, along with 98 other rejections, the three MLAs contended that their papers still held good.

“We will challenge the rejection of our resignations legally. The cause for which we tendered our resignations still holds good,” Konda Surekha said.

It was for the Telangana cause that they had resigned and not for Jagan, she admitted but added that they had quit the Congress party on Monday on the Jagan issue.

The lone MLA of YSR Congress and its honorary president YS Vijayamma did not tender her resignation which party sources said was “part of a strategy”.

—With PTI inputs