Irked by the suspension of party MPs from the Lok Sabha, a group of Seemandhra Ministers and MLAs are mulling en masse resignation along with Chief Minister, N. Kiran Kumar Reddy in three or four days.
At an emergency meeting convened by the Chief Minister on Thursday night at his camp office the overwhelming view was that the Seemandhra legislators should resign in protest against the unilateral actions of the Central government.
At least 10 Ministers and over a dozen MLAs were firm that there was no point in staying in the Congress as it was determined to go ahead with passage of the Bill ignoring the interests of the Seemandhra people. They insisted that all them should put in their papers immediately but the Chief Minister said he too was keen on stepping down in the wake of these disturbing developments. “I am willing to sail with you. Governor E. S. L. Narasimhan is not in the city. He is expected only on Saturday. Let us hold a meeting with the Seemandhra Union Ministers and suspended MPs and take a decision. If everybody gives their consent, we can fix a date in the next two or three days,” a Minister, who attended the meeting told The Hindu, quoting the Chief Minister.
The meeting decried the action against the Seemandhra MPs.
Earlier, in the day, Mr. Reddy told reporters that he would hold consultations with the Seemandhra leaders before taking a decision to resign. While asserting that resignation was one option before him, Mr. Reddy said he would like to take on board all the Seemandhra Congress leaders before pronouncing the decision. There has been speculation in the last one week that he was planning to quit the moment the bifurcation Bill was introduced in Parliament.
Asked about his future course of action and talk about floating a new party, he said nothing was more important for him than stalling the Bill in Parliament.
