New Delhi/Hyderabad, Dec 24 (IANS) Congress MPs from Telangana region Thursday decided to hand over their resignations to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. They said there was ambiguity in Home Minister P. Chidambaram's statement Wednesday, which indicated that the government was planning to put on hold the process for forming a Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh.
"We are trying to get an appointment with the Congress president. Then we will hand over our resignations. The Congress legislators from Telangana region will also quit," said Sarvey Sathyanarayana after a meeting of MPs at Andhra Bhavan in New Delhi.
"There is ambiguity in Chidambaram's statement. No time frame has been fixed for forming a separate Telangana," Sathyanarayana told IANS.
He said the Telangana MPs would also ask Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy, who is also from the Telangana region, to join their movement.
"He must also join us considering the sentiments of the people of Telangana. We are going to join the Telangana movement," said Sathyanarayana.
Meanwhile, rejecting the allegations by the Congress MPs from Telangana that the high command succumbed to the pressure tactics of the party MPs from Andhra and Rayalaseema region, senior Congress MP K.S. Rao, who campaigned for a united Andhra Pradesh, said the government has only clarified that there would be a consultation with all the parties on Telangana.
He also criticised the Congress MPs from Telangana region for their decision to quit.
"That is their way of working," Rao told IANS.
Earlier, Congress MP Madhu Yashki Goud from Nizamabad 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 masse resignations of the legislators from Andhra and Rayalaseema after the Dec 9 statement by the central government 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.