New Delhi:
With just four days to go before this session of Parliament expires, nine members of parliament were suspended today for "grave disorder" for disrupting proceedings by shouting and protesting against the decision to make Telangana India's 29th state.
They will not be allowed to attend the rest of the session.
Four of the suspended parliamentarians belong to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) headed by Chandrababu Naidu; the others are from the ruling Congress.
As soon as the Lok Sabha assembled at 11 am, the members who have now been penalized started shouting slogans demanding a united Andhra Pradesh. They refused to be quiet despite repeated requests by the speaker.
The TDP members wore masks of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, provoking a sharp exchange with members of her party, the Congress.
On August 23, 12 members - including the nine MPs punished today - had been suspended for five days over their "United Andhra" protests, demanding that plans to bifurcate Andhtra Pradesh, cleared recently by the Centre, be rescinded.
The government has made it clear that's not going to happen, despite wide protests that are being held in two of the three regions of Andhra Pradesh - Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema.
Telangana, the third region, has been fighting for statehood for several decades. In July, the union government said that it would honour a promise made first in 2009 and make Telangana a state.
The IT capital of Hyderabad - the centre of the tug-of-war between those who want a new state and others opposed to it - will be shared between the old and new state for 10 years, after which it will rest with Telangana.