AP: Speaker to take his time on resignations

HYDERABAD: The Assembly Speaker’s decision on resignations submitted en masse by the Telangana MLAs representing various political parties on separate Telangana issue is likely to be delayed further for various reasons. Speaker Nadendla Manohar, who is away in his home constituency of Tenali, will go on a week’s tour of Europe from July 23 to attend the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s (CPA’s) centenary celebrations at London in the United Kingdom and is expected to return to the state capital in the first week of August.Already, the legislators of Telangana TDP and four rebel TDP MLAs called on the speaker at his Assembly chambers with a request that their resignations be accepted forthwith. Now, pressure is mounting on the Telangana MLAs representing the Congress to press for acceptance of their resignations too.Meanwhile, the speaker reportedly told a Telangana TDP delegation that he would wait till a decision by Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar was taken on the resignations submitted by the Telangana MPs representing the Congress, TDP and TRS. He is expected to take a decision on the MLAs resignation issue only after consulting legal experts and taking precedents into consideration.It may be recalled that as many as 100 Telangana MLAs belonging to the Congress (45 members included 12 ministers, two PRP and three associate members), TDP (37, including four rebels), TRS (12), CPI (4) and BJP (2) had submitted their resignations on July 4. Bowing to pressures from local people, a total number of 141 Telangana public representatives including 9 Congress MPs of Lok Sabha, two each of TRS and TDP, several Rajya Sabha, Legislative Council and Assembly members had submitted resignations for the Telangana cause.