8 Telangana Congress MPs Suspended

8 Congress MPs were suspended from the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, for 4 days, for disrupting the proceedings of the House demanding statehood for the Telangana region.

The MPs - Ponnam Prabhakar, Madhu Yashki Goud, S Rajaiah, G Vivek, Balram Naik, Komatireddy Rajagopal, Manda Jaganatham and Gutta Sukender Reddy - went to the podium as soon as the House met on Tuesday, raising pro-Telangana slogans. They also demanded the introduction of a Telangana Bill in the House.

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Home Minister P Chidambaram were also present in the House when the MPs began their protest.

Having failed to restore order, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar had to adjourn the House thrice.

However, when the House met again at 2pm, the MPs continued with the slogan-shouting. They maintained that they were ready to face any consequences to achieve statehood for the Telangana region.

After the MPs refused to end their protests, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee consulted the leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj, Samajwadi Party's Mulayam Singh Yadav, Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav and Communist Party of India (CPI) MP Gurudas Dasgupta, on the action to be taken against the MPs.

The issue was also discussed during the Congress Core Committee meeting attended by Sonia Gandhi, the Prime Minister, Chidambaram, Sonia's Advisor Ahmed Patel and other senior leaders.

In fact, the Congress wanted to suspend the Telangana MPs for the rest of the Budget session. However, the CPI opposed such a harsh action, and advised that the MPs be suspended for only 4 days. The proposal was supported by Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sharad Yadav, AIADMK leaders, and even the BJP.

After the informal meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal moved a motion to suspend 8 Telangana MPs for 4 days from the House.

However, the suspended MPs refused to leave the House, and staged a sit-in protest against their suspension. (INN)