Rayapati Sambasiva Rao: File pic
In the first fallout of the announcement of a separate Telangana state, senior Congress Lok Sabha member from Guntur, Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, said he has decided to resign from the party as well as his parliamentary seat in protest.
Other Members of Parliament from Andhra Pradesh including several Congress ministers will meet Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy today to decide on their final stand. On the weekend, 15 Congress leaders from the state had written to party president Sonia Gandhi, threatening to quit if a separate Telangana state is announced.
"I am hurt by Congress' decision to divide Andhra Pradesh. The decision to bifurcate the state is against the interest of the people of the state. Congress leaders from Telangana have misled the party leadership. So, I have decided to resign from both the party and the Lok Sabha seat. I will submit my resignation as soon as I reach Delhi", Mr Rao told PTI over telephone from New York.
Sambasiva Rao said the Congress Working Committee's decision to carve out the new state is "objectionable" to the people of coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.
Telangana, one of the three regions of Andhra Pradesh, will be carved out as India's 29th state; the IT hub of Hyderabad will be a common capital for the next 10 years, the Congress said on Tuesday. The decision was cleared first by the parties in the ruling coalition and then by the Congress's powerful Working Committee. The process to the create the separate Telangana state will take six months, according to the Congress.