Hyderabad, Dec 24 (IANS) Congress party MPs from the Telangana region Thursday decided to resign to protest the central government's move to put on hold the process for forming a Telangana state.
Congress MP Madhu Yashki Goud from Nizamabad and his colleague Ponnam Prabhakar from Karimnagar said they had decided to quit respecting the sentiments of the people of the region.
All party MPs from the region would be holding a meeting at the residence of Nalgonda MP G. Sukhender Reddy in New Delhi. They would decide whether to submit their resignations to Congress president Sonia Gandhi or Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.
Goud alleged that MPs, including central ministers from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, defied the party's decision on the Telangana issue and resorted to blackmail tactics.
He blamed the group loyal to Kadapa MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy for creating the crisis.
"The same people who earlier tried to blackmail the party are responsible for this situation," he said referring to Jaganmohan Reddy's attempts to become chief minister after his father Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's death in a helicopter crash.
The Nizamabad MP alleged that K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao, Rajya Sabha member and close aide of the late chief minister, was behind the en mass resignations of the legislators from Andhra and Rayalaseema after the Dec 9 statement by the centre to initiate the process of forming a Telangana state.
The Telangana region has 17 members in the Lok Sabha. They include 12 of the Congress party, two each of Telugu Desam party and Telangana Rashtra Samiti and one of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM).
Both the TRS MPs, including party chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao, have already sent their resignations to the Lok Sabha speaker.