Telangana: Four more MPs, 16 legislators resign

NEW DELHI: Four more parliament members and 16 legislators from Andhra Pradesh's Telangana region resigned Tuesday to step up pressure on the central government to carve out a separate state.Intensifying the movement for a separate state of Telangana, parliament members of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) have submitted their resignations.While TRS chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao and his colleague Vijayashanti faxed their resignations to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, TDP MPs N. Nageswar Rao and Ramesh Rathore tendered their resignations in New Delhi.With this, the number of MPs who have resigned since Monday has gone up to 14.KCR, as the TRS chief is popularly known, and Vijayashanti said they would soon visit Delhi to personally meet and request Speaker Meira Kumar to accept their resignations.Nine Lok Sabha members and one Rajya Sabha member of the Congress party tendered their resignations Monday.Meanwhile, 16 more members of the assembly, including a minister, have also submitted their resignations the state assembly speaker.State Minister for Textiles Shankar Rao, who was initially reluctant to quit, faxed his resignation to the speaker from the US.All 11 members of assembly belonging to the TRS and all four of the Communist Party of India (CPI) have also quit. They handed over their resignations to legislature secretary as both the speaker and the deputy speaker were not available.With their resignations, the total number of legislators who have quit has gone up to 96. Telangana accounts for 119 members in 294-member assembly.The members of assembly who have resigned include 40 of the ruling Congress party, all 37 of the TDP, both members of the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP), and three associate members of the Congress.A total of 82 members of the state assembly, including 11 ministers, had submitted their resignations Monday.Both legislators of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are also likely to quit Tuesday evening.Three members of the legislative council also quit Tuesday. As many as 12 members of the council had submitted their resignations Monday.