Jagan adds to Congress woes over Telangana

Congress lawmakers from Telangana met senior party leader and Defence Minister A K Antony on Tuesday demanding disciplinary action against Y S Jaganmohan Reddy for joining a Telugu Desam Party protest in Lok Sabha against the decision to carve out a separate state from Andhra Pradesh.

Jaganmohan, son of late Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, even stormed the well of the House, joining the TDP members who had trooped in there earlier.

"We do not like the way Jaganmohan joined hands with the TDP. It is indiscipline. We have conveyed it to Antony," Sarvey Sathyanarayana, party MP from Malkajgiri, told reporters after meeting the Defence Minister.

Manda Jagannath, MP from Nagarkurnool, said the decision to create a separate state was taken by the party high command and it was in the manifesto of the Congress for the state assembly elections.

"They (Jaganmohan and others) went into the well of the House. This is unfortunate as they want to go against the decision of Madam (Sonia) Gandhi," he said, adding, "it was a case of collusion with TDP".

Ponnam Prabhakar, convenor of the AP Congress Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members, termed the act of the Congress MPs joining hands with the TDP as "indiscipline" and described the agitation on the issue in coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalseema as "stage-managed".

He also termed the act of Congress MP L Rajagopal's resignation as an act of indiscipline.

"Congress President Sonia Gandhi got us elected as MPs but instead of giving the resignation to her, he sent it to the Speaker. He has challenged the authority of the UPA and the Congress President," Prabhakar claimed.

On Monday, Andhra Pradesh ministers and MPs belonging to the Telangana region had written a letter to Gandhi thanking her for the decision to carve out a separate state.