Andhra Pradesh's political crisis deepened with no signs of a solution emerging as more members of Parliament (MPs) and state lawmakers offered resignation letters in the fight for a separate Telangana state, and schools, universities and commercial establishments closed on the first day of a two-day general strike that also took public transport off the region's roads. Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhara Rao, who has been spearheading the Telangana campaign, and his party colleague and former actor Vijayashanthi, who goes by one name, faxed their resignations from the Lok Sabha to the office of speaker Meira Kumar. Eleven TRS members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) submitted their resignation letters to speak- er Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka.
In New Delhi, two MPs from Andhra Pradesh's main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Nama Nageswara Rao and Ramesh Rathod, met the Lok Sabha speaker and submitted their resignations.Andhra Pradesh is confronting its latest bout of political turmoil in the campaign for separate Telangana after eight Lok Sabha MPs and and one Rajya Sabha MP from the ruling Congress sent in their resignations on Monday along with 39 party MLAs, mounting pressure on the Centre to introduce a Bill that would pave the way for the state's bifurcation.
Thirty-four TDP MLAs also resigned on Monday. Chief minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, whose calls for restraint were snubbed by the defiant MLAs, has not made a public statement on the crisis. “With nearly one-third of MLAs resigning, the state government has lost its moral authority to continue in office,“ said TRS legislator and Chandrasekhara Rao's son K. Taraka Rama Rao. “We want the Central government to take cognizance of the seriousness of the situation here and respond with concrete action.“
Rama Rao led to the speaker's office a delegation of TRS MLAs, who resigned their membership of the assembly for the second time. The same members had quit in February last year, forcing by-elections in which they were re-elected.
Four MLAs of the Communist Party of India, two of the Bharatiya Janata Party and one of the Congress--textiles minister P Shankar Rao--also resigned, taking the number of MLAs who have resigned to 94. Rama Rao said the resignations showed political parties in Telangana were united in their determination to achieve statehood.
Congress party general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, in-charge of Andhra Pradesh political affairs, held discussions with Telangana Congress leaders in New Delhi on Tuesday. Congress MP from Nizamabad, Madhu Yaskhi Goud, who took part in the discussions, said it was pre-mature to expect the meeting to produce results, but added that the Congress leadership was serious about resolving the issue.
Telangana proponents have been campaigning for separation from Andhra Pradesh on the ostensible grounds that the region's economic development has suffered because of neglect by successive state governments dominated by politicians from the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.
The general strike called by the Telangana joint action committee, an umbrella group, shut shops, schools and colleges, cinemas and petrol pumps and took public transport off the streets in Telangana. The strike was peaceful barring an incident of stonethrowing in Osmania University campus, where police used teargas shells to disperse Telangana activists.
To deter violence, additional police and paramilitary forces were deployed across the 10 districts of Telangana including capital Hyderabad, where chief minister Kiran Reddy reviewed the situation with top police officials.
The information technology (IT) industry, centred on Hyderabad, was largely unaffected, industry executives said.
In New Delhi, two MPs from Andhra Pradesh's main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Nama Nageswara Rao and Ramesh Rathod, met the Lok Sabha speaker and submitted their resignations.Andhra Pradesh is confronting its latest bout of political turmoil in the campaign for separate Telangana after eight Lok Sabha MPs and and one Rajya Sabha MP from the ruling Congress sent in their resignations on Monday along with 39 party MLAs, mounting pressure on the Centre to introduce a Bill that would pave the way for the state's bifurcation.
Thirty-four TDP MLAs also resigned on Monday. Chief minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, whose calls for restraint were snubbed by the defiant MLAs, has not made a public statement on the crisis. “With nearly one-third of MLAs resigning, the state government has lost its moral authority to continue in office,“ said TRS legislator and Chandrasekhara Rao's son K. Taraka Rama Rao. “We want the Central government to take cognizance of the seriousness of the situation here and respond with concrete action.“
Rama Rao led to the speaker's office a delegation of TRS MLAs, who resigned their membership of the assembly for the second time. The same members had quit in February last year, forcing by-elections in which they were re-elected.
Four MLAs of the Communist Party of India, two of the Bharatiya Janata Party and one of the Congress--textiles minister P Shankar Rao--also resigned, taking the number of MLAs who have resigned to 94. Rama Rao said the resignations showed political parties in Telangana were united in their determination to achieve statehood.
Congress party general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, in-charge of Andhra Pradesh political affairs, held discussions with Telangana Congress leaders in New Delhi on Tuesday. Congress MP from Nizamabad, Madhu Yaskhi Goud, who took part in the discussions, said it was pre-mature to expect the meeting to produce results, but added that the Congress leadership was serious about resolving the issue.
Telangana proponents have been campaigning for separation from Andhra Pradesh on the ostensible grounds that the region's economic development has suffered because of neglect by successive state governments dominated by politicians from the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.
The general strike called by the Telangana joint action committee, an umbrella group, shut shops, schools and colleges, cinemas and petrol pumps and took public transport off the streets in Telangana. The strike was peaceful barring an incident of stonethrowing in Osmania University campus, where police used teargas shells to disperse Telangana activists.
To deter violence, additional police and paramilitary forces were deployed across the 10 districts of Telangana including capital Hyderabad, where chief minister Kiran Reddy reviewed the situation with top police officials.
The information technology (IT) industry, centred on Hyderabad, was largely unaffected, industry executives said.
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