20 ministers quit over Telangana, stepping up pressure on Centre to reverse decision; Andhra and Rayalaseema regions witness violent protests; KCR says no going back.
Even as Andhra Pradesh plunged into a political crisis following the mass resignations by 138 MLAs belonging to Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, 20 ministers from non-Telangana areas decided to submit their resignations to the chief minister K Rosaiah.
All these ministers met in a hotel on Saturday to arrive at a collective decision. After an hour-long meeting, three ministers — revenue minister Dharmana Prasada Rao, endowments minister Gade Venkat Reddy and housing minister Shilpa Mohan Reddy — were chosen to convey the message to Rosaiah. According to sources, Rosaiah has asked the ministers to reconsider their decision, and threatened that he too would take an extreme decision if the ministers decide to quit.
“We’re under pressure from our MLAs and people of the region to protest the creation of Telangana. We have decided to quit,” said municipal administration minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy.
Rosaiah’s cabinet has 33 ministers, besides him. Of these, 12 are from Telangana and 21 are from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions. While Telangana’s 119 MLAs, including the 12 ministers, are still with the government, those from the other regions have been tendering their resignations over the last three days.
Meanwhile, agitation in Rayalaseema and Andhra regions turned violent as demonstrators
took to the streets to protest the Centre’s decision in favour of a Telangana state.
Students of Andhra Univeristy were lathi-charged as they tried to stone buses and private vehicles. There were violent incidents across the state and about 47 people have been arrested so far across Rayalaseema and Andhra. Unlike in the Telangana agitation, the protestors in Rayalaseema and Andhra regions are targeting business establishments.
While protestors damaged the HSBC BPO facility in Vizag on Friday, demonstrators in Nellore attacked an export-oriented shoe making facility of Apache, a Korean company.
There were similar attacks on various business establishments across these two regions.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhara Rao (KCR), meanwhile, said there was no question of going back on a separate Telangana state, and added that the protests in other regions against it were stage-managed and sponsored by vested interests who had invested money and acquired lands illegally in Hyderabad.
KCR said he trusted the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take the necessary measures for formation of the state. “I have a lot of faith in Sonia Gandhi. And Manmohan Singhji, who is at the helm of affairs today, is a fairly good person. Having made an announcement on behalf of the Government of India, it is up to them to solve the problem,” Rao said, adding that he has been invited to New Delhi for talks.
The entire resignations drama is also troubling N Chandrababu Naidu. While about 45 TDP MLAs from non-Telangana regions have already put in their papers, the Telangana MLAs too are now threatening to quit, in protest againt the change in the TDP leadership’s stand on supporting Telangana. The MLAs, according to sources, have already informed Naidu that the party should go ahead and support Telangana.
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