All TRS MLAs, MPs quit in support of Telangana

HYDERABAD: Apparently in an attempt to prevent Telangana movement slipping from his hand, TRS president K Chandrasekhara Rao, who represents Mahaboobnagar in the Lok Sabha and Medak MP Vijayashanti sent their resignations to Lok Sabha speaker on Tuesday morning besides directing nine of the 11 MLAs (three have been suspended by the party leadership) to put in their papers.In a late night decision, Chandrasekhara Rao, after consulting TJAC chairman Prof M Kodandaram, decided to quit his membership of the Lok Sabha and sent a fax message to Lok Sabha speaker's office in the early hours of Tuesday. After day break, Vijayashanthi also followed suit.Later in the day, Chandrasekhara Rao held talks with nine of the 11 MLAs and asked them to quit. Accordingly all of them marched to the speaker's office in the Assembly and submitted their resignations. The three suspended MLAs too resigned on their own.As soon as 44 Congress and 37 TDP legislators (including four rebels) resigned, it caused a sensation in the entire Telangana belt on Monday. In Delhi, nine of the 13 Congress MPs put in their papers. The MLAs and MPs who were targets of Telangana activists' till recently became heroes overnight.Sensing that the movement might slip out of his hand, Chandrasekahra Rao called for a meeting of the TJAC on Monday itself and declared Telangana bandh for two days on  July 5 and 6. With a majority of Congress members - both MPs and MLAs and all the TDP MLAs quitting, Chandrasekhara Rao is understood to have felt that unless the TRS members too quit, there was a possibility of the people mistaking its intentions and acted promptly by faxing his resignation letter and asking his colleague Vijayashanti to follow suit.Sircilla legislator and KCR's son KT Rama Rao said:"We have decided to quit though there was no demand from anyone because we thought it would be appropriate to vacate our seats as a majority of the legislators from Telangana  have quit. This is only to further increase the pressure on the UPA government to carve out Telangana state," he said adding: "As one thirds of the Assembly has been vacated, it is time for the Centre to decide on Telangana."