LS Speaker turns down resignations of 12 Telangana MPs

The MPs included eight from Congress and two each from TRS and TDP. They had resigned en masse on July four to press for separate Telangana.

The decision by the Speaker came just a week before the winter session of Parliament and a day after Congress MPs from the region decided to raise the issue of separate Telangana in the session.

“We will not allow Parliament to function until the Centre and the Congress high command announce their decision” on the statehood issue,Keshava Rao had announced after the meeting of party MPs in Hyderabad.

Parliament sources said that the Speaker found that the resignations were not as per a rule which stipulates that the resignation should be in a certain format and a member doing so shall not give any reason for the resignation.

The Congress MPs whose resignations were rejected by the Speaker are Ponnam Prabhakar,G S Reddy,M Jagannath,S Rajaiah,P Balram Nayak,G Vivekanand,Suresh Shetkar and Madhu Goud Yakshi.

The others whose resignation was rejected are TDP MPs,Ramesh Rathod and Namma Nageswara Rao,and TRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao and party MP Vijayashanti.