MLAs of all political parties in the state are in two minds on whether to submit resignations afresh or insist that their earlier resignations be accepted after the Centre made it clear that a Telangana state would not become a reality anytime soon. On Sunday, a day after the Prime Minster, Dr Manmohan Singh, said that all stakeholders needed to reach a consensus on Telangana before any steps could be taken, the situation remained peaceful in Telangana. There were no fresh threats of resignations.

Many Congress MLAs felt that since the Prime Minister had made it clear that nothing would be done in a hurry, there was no use in resigning again as all that would lead to would be bypolls. Another significant factor weighed on the minds of Congress and Telugu Desam MLAs was that in the absence of a clear-cut positive policy regarding Telangana, there was no guarantee that they would be re-elected in case of by-polls as the TRS would field candidates for all seats.

The Telangana Congress Steering Committee will meet on Monday to chalk out its next move. The meeting should be interesting as many Telangana ministers and MLAs have decided to stay away from it. Meanwhile the Telangana Telugu Desam legislators’ forum met here on Sunday and took stock of the situation. It was decided to burn effigies of both the Prime Minister and Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi all over the region on Monday. Other than this, the Telangana TD legislators could not decide on whether to insist that the Speaker accept their resignations submitted earlier. Thirty-two TD MLAs had submitted their resignations to Speaker Mr Manohar but they haven’t met him since then to press their case.

Even during Sunday’s meeting, the MLAs were apprehensive about the resignations and opined that there would be no use insisting that they be accepted as it would only lead to bypolls which would be advantageous for the TRS. “We will instead target the Congress for their failure to ensure statehood for Telangana and expose them further,” said TD leader Mr Errabelli Dayakara Rao. Both the TRS and the TD are at loggerheads in the region with the TRS trying to lure TD and Congress MLAs to resign and join the party.

“If they are sincere to the cause of Telangana they should resign their party membership and join us,” said senior TRS leader Mr Harish Rao.

DC