By IANS,
Hyderabad : Legislators from the Telangana region, who have been boycotting the Andhra Pradesh assembly, Monday held a mock Telangana assembly urging the central government to immediately table a bill in parliament for forming a separate state.
As many as 30 legislators belonging to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) attended the mock assembly, organised by Telangana Journalists’ Forum.
Ruling Congress party legislators, however, stayed away from it, prompting members of other parties to warn that the people of Telangana would teach them a lesson.
The mock assembly was held on a day when Congress legislators decided to end their boycott and return to the assembly. This followed their meeting with Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy and state Congress chief D. Srinivas.
The two leaders urged the legislators not to put the government in trouble by continuing their boycott and assured them that the state government would abide by the decision of the central government on the Telangana issue.
Even as the Congress legislators were meeting the chief minister, the legislators from other parties held the mock assembly and passed a resolution seeking a bill in parliament. They also paid tribute to those who committed suicide for Telangana.
Harishwar Reddy of the TDP was elected as speaker. TDP members N. Janardhan Reddy and M. Narasimulu said they were all ready to resign for the sake of a separate state.
Janardhan Reddy said frustrated over the delay in the formation of a separate state, 600 students and youth had committed suicide. “There is no other option but to carve out a separate Telangana state,” he said.
Earlier, he told reporters that the present Andhra Pradesh assembly had turned into an “Andhra assembly” as all Telangana legislators were boycotting it. He advised Andhra leaders to hold the assembly in their own region.
Legislators of the TRS, the TDP and the BJP are boycotting the assembly for the last two weeks as their demand to pass a resolution for a separate state were rejected by the government.
In 294-member assembly, 119 members are from Telangana while the remaining 175 are from the Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.
The Telangana Joint Action Committee, which is spearheading the Telangana movement, has also announced that it would hold the “last rites” of the assembly March 18, as “it is one month since it died”.