The Telangana movement today gathered further steam with TRS President K Chandrasekhar Rao and party MP Vijay Shanthi resigning from their Lok Sabha membership in support of the demand for a separate state.
Chadrasekhar Rao and Shanthi faxed their resignation letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker. Rao would meet the Speaker personally in a day or two, TRS sources said.
State Textiles Minister Shankar Rao, who is in the US, has also faxed his resignation to the Deputy Speaker, taking the total number of state ministers who have quit to 12.
However, Rao has only resigned from the assembly and not from the cabinet.
75 MLAs and a dozen MPs had quit yesterday to mount pressure on the Centre for an early announcement in favour of separate statehood demand.
Chandrasekhar Rao represents Mahaboobnagar Lok Sabha constituency while Shanthi represents Medak constituency.
TRS and the Telangana political Joint Action Committee (JAC) have been demanding en masse resignations by MPs, MLAs of Congress and TDP to force the Centre to accept the separate statehood demand.
Speaking at a meeting here last night, Chandrasekhar Rao described the resignations of public representatives as historical and demanded that the Centre take the en masse resignations into cognisance for accepting the demand.
All TRS MLAs quit in support of separate Telangana
Following en masse resignation of Congress and TDP MLAs from Telangana region, all 11 MLAs of Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) today resigned from their posts on the separate statehood demand.
Led by their floor leader in the Assembly E Rajender, five TRS legislators submitted their resignations to the Legislature Secretary as both the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker were not available.
Three other TRS MLAs, who were out of Hyderabad, faxed their resignations, while the three suspended MLAs of the party submitted their resignations later in the Assembly.
“Our intention is to build pressure on the Centre on the statehood issue by creating a crisis with the resignation of more than 100 MLAs,” Rajender said.
TRS MLA and party president K Chandrasekhar Rao’s son K T Rama Rao told PTI that the Congress government in the state had no right to continue in office as the legislators from Telangana have quit en masse.
CPI Deputy General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy said his party, which has four MLAs, would decide on resignations after the party’s state secretary K Narayana would return from abroad.
The CPI MLAs have indicated that they are ready to quit their posts for Telangana.
81 MLAs and 10 MPs from Telangana quit their posts yesterday in support of the separate statehood demand.
Tension in Osmania University
Tension prevailed at Osmania University here Tuesday as police lobbed teargas shells to disperse students who tried to take out a rally supporting the 48-hour Telangana shutdown.
Students began a rally from Arts College but were stopped by police at NCC Gate in view of ban orders in the city. The shutdown has been called by the Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC).
Students pelted stones and clashed with policemen, including paramilitary Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel.
Another group of students tried to march towards Tarnaka Gate but were stopped by police. Raising slogans of ‘Jai Telangana’ and demanding resignation of all MPs and legislators from the region, the students tried to take out a rally.
Police also arrested Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leaders N. Janardhan Reddy and Harishwar Reddy at the gate when they tried to enter the campus to express solidarity with a group of students who were on fast for the last six days.
After a gap of four months, student protests have returned to Osmania University, which was the nerve centre of Telangana agitation since November 2009.
