Hydrabad, August 31: Since last night, about a dozen MLAs belonging to the ruling party from Andhra-Rayalaseema claimed to have resigned their seats but sources in the Legislature Secretariat did not confirm having received any such letters.
Several Ministers from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema on Wednesday remonstrated with Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy the decision on creation of Telangana even as protests erupted in non-Telangana regions of the state against the contentious move.
Several ministers from non-Telangana region, who had threatened to quit if the Congress decided to carve a new state out of Andhra Pradesh, met Reddy and at least one of them — Erasu Pratap Reddy — said he had "already submitted" his resignation to the party.
A group of ministers including TG Venkatesh, Erasu Pratap Reddy, Ganta Srinivas and Pitani Satyanarayana met the Chief Minister in the afternoon and discussed the fallout of the party high command’s decision.
"We (ministers and MLAs from the two regions) will meet again tomorrow and decide the course of action," Reddy and Venkatesh said after the meeting.
"Nothing has happened yet. Only the Congress has announced its decision. We are still hopeful that the process (to create Telangana) will not go through," they said.
Since last night, about a dozen MLAs belonging to the ruling party from Andhra-Rayalaseema claimed to have resigned their seats but sources in the Legislature Secretariat did not confirm having received any such letters.
Widespread protests were witnessed in several parts of Andhra and Rayalaseema regions with people taking to streets, organising rallies, demonstrations and burning tyres and effigies of UPA leaders as part of the bandh being observed today by different outfits.
Normal life was disrupted as educational institutions and commercial establishments remained closed and the services of state-run Andhra Pradesh Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) were suspended in Kadapa, Chittoor, Visakhapatnam and Krishna. The agitators squatted on roads to prevent the buses from plying.
Two persons, including a home guard, reportedly committed suicide in Vizianagaram and Guntur districts protesting the move to divide the state.
At some places like Eluru, incidents of violence were reported, with protestors attacking a private educational institution and government offices, damaging furniture and setting private vehicles on fire.
Educational institutions remained shut across Andhra-Rayalaseema while lawyers boycotted work at many places.
Tension prevailed in Anantapur district after police lobbed teargas shells on Samaikhyandhra protesters who pelted them with stones.
Hundreds of slogan-raising protesters took to streets and pelted stones on policemen near Arts College and other parts of Anantapur town, prompting the police to fire teargas shells.
"The situation is tense but under control. We had to fire teargas shells to disperse the protesters following stone pelting," a senior police official told PTI over phone from Anantapur town.
The protesters also allegedly damaged statues of former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi at a few places, besides ransacking a Mandal Revenue office (MRO) in Anantapur, he said adding the agitators also attacked offices of BJP with stones and tried to lay siege to the residence of state revenue minister Raghuveera Reddy.
The police chased away the protesters at many places in the town and some of them have also been taken into custody, he said.
In Vijayawada, students gathered at squares and held road blockades to protest the decision to partition the state.