Telangana costs Congress 7 MPs, a state minister and 7 MLAs

The decision to create a separate Telangana state has so far cost the ruling Congress seven MPs, a state minister and seven MLAs, and more are expected to follow suit as the centre's decision starts to backfire on the Congress.

Reports, meanwhile, said four Andhra ministers, including HRD minister Pallam Raju, had offered to quit. However, the party has managed to dissuade the four Andhra ministers from resigning.

The other ministers are ministers of state D Purandeswari, Killi Kruparani and JD Seelam.

The seven MPs, including six Lok Sabha members and a Rajya Sabha member, however, submitted their resignations.

The Lok Sabha members, including A Sai Prathap (Rajampet constituency), Anantha Venkatarami Reddy (Anantapur) C V Harsha Kumar (Amalapuram-SC), Vundavalli Arun Kumar (Rajahmundry), Lagadapati Rajagopal (Vijayawada) and S P Y Reddy (Nandyal), submitted their resignations to Lok Sabha Secretary General T K Vishwanathan.

They said three more Lok Sabha members from the state - Sabbam Hari (Anakapalli), Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy (Ongole) and Rayapati Sambasiva Rao (Guntur) - had also faxed their resignations.

Congress has 31 members in the house from Andhra Pradesh.

Rajya Sabha member KVP Ramachandra Rao tendered his resignation to Rajya Sabha Secretary General Shamsher K Sheriff.

Apparently, members of the Congress party itself are upset over the party's decision to create a separate state bowing to the demands of the Telengana Rashtra Samiti (TRS).

Those who resigned their posts include MPs and MLAs from the Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.

Congress MPs and union ministers from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions held marathon meeting late last night to evolve strategy against formation of Telangana decision.

In Hyderabad, municipal administration minister M Maheedhar Reddy resigned today, taking to four the number of ministers who put in their papers since yesterday.

Congress MLA Dronamraju Srinivas also tendered resignation and another half-a-dozen MLAs also have quit.

The total number of Congress MLAs who resigned since yesterday went up to 20 while about 15 others claimed to have submitted their resignations to PCC president B Satyanarayana.

Meanwhile, the AICC in-charge of Andhra Pradesh, Digvijay Singh, told Congress members from Andhra that a high level committee would be set up to address the grievances of people from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.