Seemandhra ministers, MLAs resign

 Following the announcement by firebrand MP of Vijayawada Lagadapati of his intention to quit politics and Union minister D Purandheshwari tendering resignation and leaving the Congress, at least nine Seemandhra Congress legislators announced their resignations.

Even as Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy kept dilly dallying, two of his ministers and two MLAs resigned within minutes after the Lok Sabha cleared the Telangana bill. The ministers who quit include Ganta Srinivas Rao (Infrastructure) and Erasu Pratap Reddy (Law) and MLAs U V Ramanamurthy Raju, Avanti Srinivas and Chintalapudi Venkataramaiah. Husband of Purandheswari Daggubati Venkateswara Rao, Yalamanchili MLA UV Ramana Murty Raju, Madanapalle MLA Shajahan Basha, Pendurti MLA Ramesh Babu were among others who tendered their resignations.

According to reports from Coastal and Seemandhra districts many more Congress MLAs have announced their intention to resign to pacify local cadres. In Anakapalle, Congress workers ransacked party office and burnt Congress flags. Meanwhile, Palle Raghunatha Reddy MLA (TDP) from Puttaparthy and another TDP MLA from Kovvur also announced their resignation.

However, there were no takers when the chief minister aide announced that the “CM will resign tomorrow along with few others”. While few personal office material such as computers were shifted out of the chief minister’s camp office, senior officers were transferred. “The chief minister will not quit. He has been cheating the people of Seemandhra from the past six months. I assure you he will one day return with a Congress cap as an AICC observer,” Dokka Manikyavaraprasada Rao a Congress loyal minister said.