By IANS
New Delhi : Accusing the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) of “betraying the people of Telangana”, four Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) MPs Monday submitted their resignations to protest the government’s delay in creating a separate state for their region.
“A clear-cut assurance was given to the Telangana people in the UPA’s common minimum programme. The expected consensus was fully arrived at. But the UPA betrayed its promises to the people of the region,” TRS chief K. Chandrashekhar Rao said in the Lok Sabha before handing over his resignation letter to Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.
Chatterjee said: “I will look into it. There are some procedures.”
The Lok Sabha witnessed some dramatic moments as the four TRS MPs, wearing their trademark pink shawl, ran towards the speaker’s podium immediately after the house met in the morning.
“We want Telangana!” the MPs shouted, carrying their resignation letters.
When Chatterjee insisted that they should go back to their seats, the MPs returned only to announce their resignation and left the house shouting slogans that they would make sure a separate state of Telangana would be created.
The situation got more charged when opposition MPs began shouting “Shame, Shame!” and blamed the treasury benches for the resignations.
“This is the first time MPs are resigning inside the house,” said L.K. Advani, the leader of the opposition.
Rao, who was a minister in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s cabinet, had a year ago quit his ministerial post as well as the Lok Sabha membership on the issue. But he returned to the house winning a landslide majority from Karimnagar in a by-election on the statehood plank.
The people of Telangana have been demanding a separate state, bifurcating Andhra Pradesh, saying successive state governments have neglected the region.