It's a dangerous gamble, but it's being played by the person who has the least to lose.
It's a dangerous gamble, but it's being played by the person who has the least to lose.
The Telangana JAC Convenor and OU Professor Kodandaram is back to trying to get legislators of the area to resign en masse to support the cause of a separate state, so as to create a constitutional crisis that will precipitate matters. But unlike last time when there was an almost 100% response from the MLAs and MPs of the area, this time it looks like he's jeopardizing the political careers of several.
So far, of the 119 MLAs of the region, only the TRS (10), PRP (1) and BJP (1) Telangana MLAs have agreed to resign in protest against the Terms of Reference of the Justice Srikrishna Committee announced 2 days back. Only 4 of the 50 Congress MLAs of the region have agreed to resign so far, and of the about 40 TDP MLAs in Telangana, only a handful have agreed to resign.
The resignations will have an impact only if they are huge in number. At the current count, they will only result in by-elections, which can have 2 outcomes - that the same persons get elected again, which effectively means that nothing came out of the whole exercise for them except a significant monetary loss in the cost of fighting the election, or that someone else wins the by-election, which, of course, is worse. (In any case, a person who's resigned then fighting the by-election again itself looks like it's defeating the purpose of the resignation.)
With the Congress High Command reportedly threatening to end the political careers of Congress legislators who resign, there isn't a likelihood that there will be much response from Telangana Congress legislators this time around. The TDP MLAs and MPs of the region appear to realize this, and feel that their own resignations will go in waste if all that results is a round of by-elections. That leaves only the meagre numbers of the TRS, PRP and BJP, and 15-20 resignations will make no difference.
As of now, only Mutyam Reddy and Damodar Reddy are Congress leaders of some standing who have offered to resign, though Kodandaram claims there are 6 Congress MLAs who've offered to resign. Nagam, Erraballi, Revuri, Sitakka and Ramana are among a small clutch of TDP MLAs who've offered to resign as a step to see if Congress MLAs will resign, too - the TDP stand is that they will resign in batches if Congress MLAs reciprocate. TDP Telangana leaders are meeting at the NTR Trust Bhavan at Hyderabad, India, today to decide on resignations.
The pressure tactics, of course, continue, with T-JAC leader Srinivas Goud saying that there will be "dhoom dhaam" outside the residences of Telangana MLAs/MPs who refuse to quit, and the TRS constantly harping that it will be cheating the people of Telangana if its legislators do not resign.
Complaints abound that the person who has the least to lose in all this Kodandaram himself, who doesn't resign from his own post as Professor at Osmania University while constantly asking others to resign. Echoing such thinking, the Telangana NGOs Association leader Swami Goud has asked Jana Reddy, who asked all government employees of the region to resign, that he himself will resign as the head of the association if Jana Reddy first resigns himself.
The Speaker of the A P Legislative Assembly has offered to meet the legislators wishing to resign, at 2pm today, at which time they are expected to submit their resignations. (The Assembly sessions start from tomorrow.)