Hyderabad: Fifteen legislators from the Telangana region on Sunday submitted their resignations to the state assembly speaker to protest the terms of reference of the Srikrishna panel set up by the Central Government to study the demand for a separate state.
Stating that the terms of reference were not favourable for the formation of Telangana state, all 10 legislators of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) submitted their resignations to Speaker Kirankumar Reddy.
Two legislators from ruling Congress and one each from Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) also gave their resignations.
The legislators reached the assembly premises in a rally from the office of the all-party Joint Action Committee (JAC), which is spearheading the movement for a separate Telangana.
The JAC, at its meeting on Saturday night, had decided that all legislators would submit their resignations. There are 119 legislators from Telangana region in the 294-member assembly. Congress has 50 and TDP has 39 legislators. BJP and PRP have two legislators each.
Though four Congress legislators had on Saturday night announced their decision to quit, only two put in their papers. Party legislators held a meeting at the residence of senior leader Jana Reddy to discuss their strategy.
However, they failed to take any decision and agreed to meet again in the evening.
TDP legislators from Telangana also held a separate meeting. Party sources said it was decided that they would resign only after Congress legislators come forward to quit.
The JAC has rejected the terms of reference of the five-member panel formed by the central government as it has also been asked to look into the demand for maintaining the present status of united Andhra Pradesh.
JAC has alleged that the terms of reference were against the spirit of the December 9 statement by the Central Government to initiate the process for forming Telangana state.
Meanwhile, assembly speaker told reporters that he would take a decision on the resignations within the framework of the Constitution and as per the rules and procedures of assembly.
The speaker had last month rejected the resignations of over 100 legislators from Telangana, Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, saying the resignation letters were invalid.
TRS legislators have claimed that this time they have submitted their resignations in the prescribed format.
Meanwhile, TRS chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao and actress-turned-politician Vijayshanti, both of them MPs, would be leaving for New Delhi Monday to submit their resignations to Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar.
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