4 Telangana TDP legislators quit

Four dissident Telugu Desam Party (TDP) legislators from Telangana Sunday sent their resignations to the Andhra Pradesh assembly speaker even as  both ruling Congress and the main opposition TDP legislators from the region are set to resign on Monday seeking a separate state.

Congress MPs, state ministers and legislators reiterated that they will not go back on their resignations even as the party leadership continued its efforts for the second day to dissuade them.

The party MPs are scheduled to leave for Delhi in the evening to submit their resignations to Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar and Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari Monday.

The members of state assembly, including ministers, will submit their papers to assembly speaker N Manohar while the members of legislative council will hand over their resignations to council chairman K Chakrapani at 11 am.

Hectic political activity is on in the ruling party circles as chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and state Congress chief Botsa Satyanarayana were holding talks with Telangana ministers to persuade them not to take any step which precipitates matters.

The chief minister held talks with his deputy Damodar Rajanarasimha, who comes from Telangana, and other ministers, including G Saraiah, Sudershan Reddy, Ramreddy Venkat Reddy and Sreedhar Babu.

Satyanarayana also held another meeting with Congress ministers to counsel restraint. According to party sources, he told them that resignations would only create a crisis and advised them to wait for the central government's decision on the issue.

Telangana leaders, who also received a call from Congress president Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel Saturday, remained firm.

They have given the leadership time till 11 am Monday to make an announcement on initiating the process for formation of separate state in accordance with the statement made by the central government December 9, 2009.

"We are not children to be persuaded," said senior leader and Rajya Sabha member Keshav Rao after MPs held a meeting at the residence of their colleague G Vivek. He ruled out going back on resignations.

Meanwhile, taking a lead four dissident legislators of TDP Sunday sent their resignations to the assembly speaker. N Janardhan Reddy, Harishwar Reddy, Venugopala Chary and Jogu Ramana sent the resignations from their hunger strike camp.

The TDP leaders began a fast here, demanding unity among all parties and leaders fighting for separate state.

TDP legislators held a separate meeting to chalk out their strategy. TDP Telangana forum convenor E Dayakar Rao told reporters that they would submit their resignations only after their counterparts from the Congress.

He also demanded that legislators of all parties should resign. "The resignations should not be for another by-election but to force the central and state governments to accept the demand for separate state," he said.

Meanwhile, an indefinite hunger strike by a group of students of Kaktiya University in Warangal entered fourth day Sunday. They are demanding resignations of all public representatives of Telangana for separate state.

It is still not clear how many of the 12 Lok Sabha members and 50 legislators of Congress party from Telangana will quit Monday.

TDP has 37 legislators from Telangana in the 294-member assembly while its two Lok Sabha members from the region have not yet decided on resignations.

The Telangana region accounts for 119 assembly seats and 17 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state.