Political parties and leaders in Andhra Pradesh were comprehensively divided along regional lines on the Srikrishna Committee’s terms of reference.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) termed it a “betrayal of the people” and announced that all its 10 MLAs, MPs K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Vijayshanti, and one MLC would tender their resignations, this time in the prescribed format, on Saturday.
Mr. Rao ridiculed the committee’s mandate to look into the issue of a united Andhra Pradesh when it already existed.
Several Congress MLAs from Telangana are also contemplating resignation. A meeting convened by R. Damodar Reddy expressed their dissatisfaction with the terms of reference.
The mood was in favour of precipitating a political crisis if the terms were not revised in favour of Telangana.
In the TDP, the view among the 39 MLAs from Telangana was in favour of quitting provided the Congress MLAs resigned.
The Centre, they felt, had gone back on its promise of initiating the process of formation of Telangana and was trying to buy time.
The Praja Rajyam Party, the CPI(M) and the Lok Satta welcomed the terms of reference, while the CPI criticised them.
