Pallam, Chiru, Kotla Kavuri offer to quit

MPs Vundavalli, Ananta Venkatram, Sabbam, Sai Pratap quit Congress

Hyderabad: The Union Cabinet’s decision to bifurcate the State sparked spate of resignations from the Union Cabinet, Lok Sabha and even from the primary membership of the Congress party.

While Pallam Raju, Kavuri Sambasiva Rao and Chiranjeevi have offered to resign from the cabinet, Kotla Suryaprakash Reddy will submit his resignation today.

Meanwhile, the hard core Congress MP from Rajamundry Vundavalli Arunkumar, Ananta Venkatarami Reddy, Sabbam hari and Sai Pratap resigned from the Congress party.

Chiranjeevi, the actor-turned-politician, is understood to have faxed his resignation to the Prime Minister's Office. He felt anguished over the way the protests in Seemandhra regions, going on for over two months, were handled.

Pallam Raju told mediapersons that he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after the Cabinet's decision and made the offer but he asked him "not to act in haste". "I am very pained at the decision on the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh which was taken by the Cabinet. Subsequent to the meeting, I met the Prime Minister and offered to resign. He has told me not to act in haste", Raju said.

Speaking to media at Rajahmundry, Arun Kumar said that he had tendered his resignation from the primary membership in the Congress party. Expressing his anguish over the Congress high command for not giving any credence to the ongoing two month-old agitation in the Seemandhra region, he termed the decision of the union cabinet as undemocratic.