YSR Congress MPs Resign Over AP Special Status

Five YSR Congress Party Lok Sabha MPs resigned on Friday and immediately sat on an indefinite hunger strike to build pressure on the Modi government at the Centre to accord Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh.

As the party had announced earlier, the five MPs - Y V Subba Reddy, Varaprasad, Avinash Reddy, Mithun Reddy and Rajmohan Reddy - met Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan in her chambers and handed over their resignation letters without heeding to her advice to reconsider their action.

Earlier the Lok Sabha adjourned sine die within a few minutes after it assembled. Though this was expected, the Telugu Desam MPs in a desperate attempt to dilute the YSRCP MPs' move, remained squatting in the House. They left the House on being informed that the Speaker would like to meet them. But they were outwitted by the Speaker who left before the TDP MPs reached her chambers.

Taken aback by these turn of events, the TDP MPs squatted before the Speaker's chambers and told the marshals that they would not leave the premises without meeting the Speaker. The YSRCP MPs had by then already called on the Speaker and submitted their resignations.

Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, the President of the YSR Congress Party, has managed to stay a step ahead in scoring brownie points over his arch rival Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on the issue of SCS for Andhra Pradesh. While Jagan has been agitating for long demanding SCS, Naidu has been changing his stance on the issue. It is perceived that it was Jagan's persistent war against the Modi government in the matter that compelled Naidu to sever ties with the BJP after honeymooning with it for nearly four years.

Jagan's calculated moves - undertaking a padayatra all over the state for the past several weeks, and making his party MPs quit and go on an indefinite fast - seem to be paying off as he has succeeded in garnering the attention of the masses.

Naidu, in a bid to come back, has called for an all-party meeting in the state capital Amaravathi on Saturday, and even sent his emissaries to persuade his beta noire Jagan also to attend the meeting.

All eyes are now on Naidu as to what steps he will take to make his erstwhile ally the BJP to concede the demand of SCS for AP and thus prevent serious headwinds for his TDP in 2019 in the state.