5 YSRCP MPs submit resignation to Lok Sabha Speaker over Andhra Special Status

Jaganmohan Reddy had announced earlier that if Special Status was not accorded to the state his party MPs would resign en masse from the House.
5 YSRCP MPs submit resignation to Lok Sabha Speaker over Andhra Special Status
5 YSRCP MPs submit resignation to Lok Sabha Speaker over Andhra Special Status
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Protesting the Centre's failure to grant Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh, five Lok Sabha MPs belonging to the YSR Congress Party on Friday resigned from their seats in the Parliament.

The MPs are YV Subbareddy, Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy, YS Avinash Reddy, V Varaprasad Rao and PV Mithun Reddy. All their resignation letters, which were submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, had only one line: "I hereby tender my resignation of my Lok Sabha seat in the House with immediate effect.”

The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were adjourned on Friday sine dine.

The MPs will now sit on an indefinite hunger strike at the Andhra Bhavan in New Delhi, demanding 'justice' for their state.

With this move, the YSRCP only has a single remaining MP in the Rajya Sabha, Vijayasai Reddy.

After the 2014 election, the YSRCP had three more members, SPY Reddy, Butta Renuka and Kothapalli Geetha. While Renuka defected to the TDP, the other two MPs have also disassociated themselves from the YSRCP.

This comes after weeks of escalating tensions between the parties in Andhra Pradesh and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre.

Earlier this month, chalking out the YSRCP's plan of action, party chief Jaganmohan Reddy said, "Across the state there will be relay hunger strikes by students at their respective university campuses and at all Assembly constituency levels by party cadre and youth along with party state leaders."

He also demanded that Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu ask TDP MPs in the Lok Sabha to resign.

"If all the 25 MPs quit en masse, the amount of pressure being mounted on the Centre would be immense, but Chandrababu Naidu has been trying to save his skin by asking his MPs to stay away from resigning," Jagan had said.

Both the YSRCP and TDP, which pulled out of the NDA on March 16, moved no-confidence motions against the government over its refusal to accord Special Status to Andhra Pradesh as committed to it at the time of the state's bifurcation in 2014.

However, the same could not be taken up by the Lok Sabha Speaker due to the protests by the AIADMK members over the fact that the Cauvery Management Board has not yet been set-up as mandated by the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha on Thursday witnessed high-voltage drama even after its proceedings were adjourned for the day as TDP members stayed put and had to be marshalled out from the House.

The TDP members, who staged a dharna inside the House even after the adjournment, described their eviction as an "insult of Andhra Pradesh".

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