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Fresh resignations
Highlights
Fresh Resignations, Seemandhra Congress MPs, Lagadapati Rajagopal. L Rajagopal, V Arun Kumar, A Sai Pratap, Sabbam Hari submit resignations to Speaker’s office.
L Rajagopal, V Arun Kumar, A Sai Pratap, Sabbam Hari submit resignations to Speaker’s office.
Changing tack, the Seemandhra Congress MPs on Monday submitted fresh resignation letters individually to the Speaker’s office, to avoid the charge of acting under duress. While L Rajagopal, A Sai Pratap and Sabbam Hari personally delivered their resignations in the Speaker’s office, V Arun Kumar had his resignation hand-delivered at the office.
In his resignation letter, L Rajagopal said, “I am elected to the 15th Lok Sabha from Vijayawada constituency of Andhra Pradesh. I hereby tender my resignation to the membership of the Lok Sabha and request you to kindly accept my resignation.” The entire attempt is to make the resignations appear to be voluntary in nature and not done either under pressure or threat from any quarter.
As many as 13 resignations were rejected by Speaker Meira Kumar on Friday. In the assessment of the Speaker’s office, all the resignations tendered were not of voluntary in nature and were done under duress. There were public threats and ultimatums held out by the agitators demanding that Seemandhra MPs should resign.
The Seemandhra Congress MPs had themselves held several meetings and held consultations among themselves on how to get their resignations accepted. All this became the basis for the rejection of the resignations by Speaker Meira Kumar. All the MPs were at pains to publicly emphasise that there were no consultations and no meetings were held, to drive home the point that the decision was purely voluntary in nature. In fact, on the day the Speaker rejected the resignations, A Sai Pratap said that soon they will meet to decide on the future course of action. But now, each one of them claimed that no consultations preceded their move and it was done in their individual capacity.
All of them insisted that they will make every effort to get their resignations accepted at the earliest. Sabbam Hari insisted that this time round he is particular that the resignation should be accepted. He expressed confidence that the Speaker will accept the resignation. L Rajagopal reached Speaker Meira Kumar’s office at 12 pm, only to find that she was not available. Rajagopal handed in his resignation to Lok Sabha Secretary-General V Bala Shekhar and also sought an appointment with Speaker Meira Kumar on Tuesday to personally plead with her for its early acceptance. Insisting that he has not spoken to anyone or consulted anyone, Rajagopal said his resignation was voluntary and not done under anyone’s influence. Rajagopal said after the announcement of the then Union HM P Chidambaram on Dec 9, 2009, he had tendered his resignation on Dec 10, 2009, to the Speaker. Again on August 2, he had similarly resigned as MP. Now again on October 21, he has tendered his resignation.
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