Resignations galore in AP's ongoing political drama

DESARAJU SURYA
Hyderabad: From a gram panchayat ward member to a member of Parliament, elected representatives at different levels of the political pyramid cutting across party lines, have resigned to their posts in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions strongly protesting the “unilateral decision” of the Congress to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh.
Scores of panchayat ward members, sarpanches, mandal parishad territorial constituency members, mandal parishad presidents, zilla parishad territorial constituency members, municipal councillors, municipal chairpersons, municipal corporation corporators, mayors, zilla parishad chiefs, MLAs, MLCs and MPs belonging to Congress, Telugu Desam, Praja Rajyam parties have put in their papers.
Ministers, both Central and state, hailing from the region, however, haven’t yet decided on their resignations despite mounting pressure from their respective regions for them to follow in the footsteps of fellow legislators.
The ministers so far have remained silent on the issue.
While the number of MPs who resigned is five (two Congress and three TDP), the number of MLAs touched 130, including 76 Congress, 40 TDP and 14 PRP. As many as 34 members of the state Legislative Council have also tendered their resignation, strongly denouncing the Centre’s move to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh.
The en masse resignation spree is seen as an unprecedented development in the political history anywhere in the country so far.
The first salvo was fired by Congress’ Lagadapati Rajagopal, Lok Sabha member from Vijayawada, the “political capital” of Andhra Pradesh. To follow him immediately were senior MLAs and former ministers J C Diwakar Reddy and D L Ravindra Reddy.
The resignation spree then spread like wildfire as many other MLAs and MLCs belonging to different parties from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions followed suit.
Taking a cue from the MPs and the MLAs, Vijayawada city Mayor M Ratnabindu quit her post even as more than 25 corporators of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation too joined the protest.
Mayors of Rajahmundry, Kakinada, Kadapa and Guntur cities, chairperson of Anantapur Zilla Parishad and heads of various other local bodies too tendered their resignations.
The spate of resignations is only increasing as more number of elected representatives are said to be putting in their papers individually, reports from different regions say.