13 ministers say ‘quits’ from Rosaiah

Hyderabad, Dec 25: The Rosaiah Cabinet plunged into a crisis on Friday with 13 Ministers from Telangana region stepping down from the Council demanding clarity from the Centre on the Wednesday’s statement made by the Union Home Minister, Mr P Chidambaram, on the formation of separate state for Telangana.The ministers include Mrs Sabitha Indra Reddy (Home), Mr Ponnala Lakshmaiah (Major Irrigation), Mr Danam Nagender (Medical and Health) and Mr D Sridhar Babu (Higher Education). What is significant is that all of them have faxed a common ‘resignation’ letter signed by all of them to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi.

However, the Chief Minister, Mr K Rosaiah, was only ‘briefed’ of the issue (of sending the letter to Mrs Gandhi). Mr Lakshmaiah told media persons at the State Secretariat after meeting the Chief Minister that “we have faxed a letter to Mrs Sonia Gandhi” for her decision.He said that the statement made by Mr Chidambaram on Wednesday lacks clarity and that they now demand the Centre only to throw more light on the issue of formation of separate state for Telangana and set a time frame for fulfilling the demand. To a question he said they had informed the Chief Minister of their decision to quit the Ministry. “He (the Chief Minister) advised us not to go ahead with our decision (of quitting the Cabinet),” he explained.