Twenty six MLAs - 24 of the Congress and two from the Telugu Desam - loyal to YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy submitted their letters of resignation here on Monday.
Three more Congress MLAs, Konda Surekha, Jayasudha Kapoor and Kunja Satyavathi, who had submitted their resignations in support of separate Telangana earlier, expressed solidarity with them. They did submit letters afresh as they had approached the court against the Speaker’s decision to reject them, they said.
The MLAs came in a procession from the party office, paid tributes to the statues of YSR and Ambedkar enroute before proceeding together to the Assembly in a bus. They tendered their resignations in the prescribed format to Legislature Secretary S. Raja Sadaram as Speaker Nadendla Manohar was not present.
Speaking to reporters, former Minister P. Subash Chandra Bose said the resignations were tendered in protest against attempts to malign the image of former Chief Minister late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy who brought the Congress party in Andhra Pradesh to power twice. The late leader instilled confidence among the people through his 1,470-km padayatra and continued it with a series of welfare programmes covering all sections.
The Congress leaders, however, launched a vilification campaign after his untimely death and conspiracy was hatched to erase his memories from public life. The ruling party explored legal options and used the CBI to project YSR as the main accused.
“We cannot continue any longer in the face of these attempts to denigrate the late leader in spite of his contributions to the party and people,” Mr. Bose said.
The MLAs later left for Shamshabad airport to board a special flight to Renigunta from where they would proceed to Idupulapaya in Kadapa district to pay their respects to YSR at his samadhi.
