The Andhra Pradesh Budget session on Monday began under the shadows of Telangana agitation with legislators from Telangana either quitting the House or boycotting the proceedings.
Governor ESL Narasimhan's inaugural address to the joint session of Assembly and Legislative Council was marred by Telangana legislators of Congress party raising slogns of "Jai Telangana" and walking out of the House. They were countered by the members from coastal Andhra and Rayala Seema with slogans of "Jai Samakhya Andhra". Telangana legislators of Congress party who carried placards demanding the implementation of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's announcement that the process of formation of Telangana had begun, were joined by the members of CPI who too demanded the formation of Telangana state.
All the 39 Telugu Desam legislators from Telangana legislators boycotted the first day of the session and held dharna in front of Mahatma Gandhi's statue in the assembly premises and Telangana Martyr's memorial in nearby gun park.
All the 10 TRS members were conspicuous by their absence as they had surrendered their resignations, which were accepted by Speaker N Kirankumar Reddy late last night.
Protesting Congress legislators also later staged a dharna, demanding immediate formation of Telangana state and rejecting the Srikrishna committee. However, there was no indication that they were going to resign from the assembly and council.
Only two of the 51 Congress MLAs from Telangana -- R Damodar Reddy and Ch Mutyam Reddy -- had tendered their resignations yesterday but they were yet to be accepted.
The Speaker was apparently giving time to the Congress leadership to prevail upon the two members to withdraw their letter. A group of ministers met both the members late last night but could not change their minds. There were indications from the Congress leadership that Damodar and Mutyam Reddy will be suspended form the party on the charge of anti party activities.
While the Speaker has accepted the resignations of TDP's Ch Ramesh and BJP's Laskhi Narasaiah, the resignation of Maheshwar Reddy of PRP was also pending.
Dr N Janardhan Reddy, who led TDP MLAs protest this morning, said that all 39 party MLAs have signed their resignation letters but they will be handed over to the Speaker only after Congress MLAs also tender their resignations. "Presently we will keep our resignation letters with the Telangana JAC convenor Prof Kodandram. We will ask him to secure the resignations of the Congress MLAs and put together hand over them to the Speaker", he said.
Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, another senior TDP legislator said, that there was no use of10, or twenty or forty legislators resigning separately. "We can create a constitutional crisis only if at least 100 TDP MLAs resign and then center will be forced to announce Telangana. We should not resign for the sake of by elections. But we should resign for Telangana state", he said.
With out taking any names, the governor appealed for maintenance of peace and tranquility in the state. The governor said that during last few months state was going through difficult times affecting public order, pace of development and image of the state.
