All Telangana lawmakers asked to quit

The Telangana Joint Action Committee, an umbrella forum of all the political parties and people's organisations supporting the demand for Telangana state, has decided to pressurise all the ministers, MLAs, MLCs and MPs of the region to tender their resignations in support of the cause.

This was in accordance with the larger strategy of creating a constitutional and political crisis in Andhra Pradesh to force Centre's hand on Telangana state.

The decision was taken at the steering committee of the TJAC held in Hyderabad on Wednesday. Briefing media persons, TJAC convenor Prof Kodanda Ram said that the meeting passed a resolution requesting all the legislators to tender their resignations.

Of the 119 MLAs of the region, only 77 have sent their resignations so far, he said.

They include 39 from TDP, all ten of TRS, two of PRP and 26 of the 52 Congress legislators. The meeting gave a call to all the remaining public representatives to sent their resignations.

Those who have not resigned so far include seven MLAs and one MLC and one MP of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), which has a strong base in Hyderabad. MIM has so far not declared its stand on the issue of Telangana.

R Damodar Reddy of Congress said that pressure also be brought upon MIM representatives to resign from assembly and council and Lok Sabha.

"We will very soon chalk out a plan of action to bring pressure on the public representatives who have not resigned so far," Kodanda Ram said.

Senior leaders of all the parties, including R Damodar Reddy of the Congress and TDP's Nagam Janardhan Reddy, attended the meeting.

On the future course of action to intensify the protest, Kodanda Ram said that some minor issues were needed some more discussion after which the programme will be finalised.

The steering committee passed two more resolutions one of which assured the settlers (people of Andhra region settled in Telangana) that their properties and businesses will not be harmed and they can live a normal life with out any problem. The other resolution demanded action against the Director General of Police R Girish Kumar for his Tuesday's statement in New Delhi that Maoist activities will go up in smaller states, as they will not have sufficient resources to control the Maoists.

"This is an insult to the aspirations and wishes of the people of Telangana, who are demanding the formation of a Telangana state," the resolution said.