Date:04/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/04/stories/2008030450100100.htm

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4 TRS members quit Lok Sabha

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Four members of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) submitted their resignations from the Lok Sabha on Monday in protest against the delay in the creation of a Telangana State. Following their example, TRS legislators will resign from the Andhra Pradesh Assembly in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

The TRS MPs — K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Vinod Kumar Boianapalli, Ravinder Naik Dharavath and T. Madhusudan Reddy — submitted their resignations to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee soon after the House convened for the day. Later in the evening Mr. Chatterjee accepted the resignations.

The four MPs first trooped into the well of the House but returned to their designated places when the Speaker told them that nothing they said from the well would go on record. Raising the Telangana issue, Mr. Rao said that when the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was formed, clear-cut assurances had been given on the formation of a Telangana State.

“The Congress has betrayed the people of Telangana,” Mr. Rao said before proceeding to the Speaker’s podium to submit his resignations. Other TRS members followed him before leaving the House shouting “Jai Telangana” slogans.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and some of its allies in the National Democratic Alliance also walked out of the House to express solidarity with the TRS members.