Hyderabad, Sep 24 (IANS): A legislator of the ruling Congress Saturday resigned in support of the demand for grant of statehood to Telangana region.

T. Rajaiah, member of assembly from Station Ghanpur constituency in Warangal district, faxed his resignation to the speaker. He also threatened to launch an indefinite hunger strike in front of the assembly premises to press for acceptance of his resignation by the speaker.

Rajaiah's resignation is likely to mount pressure on other Congress legislators in Telangana to quit as the movement for a separate state gathered momentum with the ongoing 'people's strike'.

The development came close on the heels of the threat by Infrastructure Minister K. Venkat Reddy to resign and launch indefinite fast from Oct 2 if the central government failed to take a decision to carve out Telangana.

The Telangana Congress steering committee, comprising party legislators, MPs and other leaders from the region, has set Sep 30 as the deadline for the leadership to take a decision on the issue. Some of them have threatened to resign.

It may be recalled that over 100 legislators from Telangana belonging to various parties had submitted their resignations in July, demanding that the centre form a separate state. However, the speaker rejected all the resignations.

All 11 legislators of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and four rebels of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) submitted fresh resignations last month.

The TDP legislators have also agreed to resign Sep 28 but want their counterparts from the Congress to also quit along with them.