Ponnam quits as convener of State MPs Forum

HYDERABAD: Ponnam Prabhakar, Congress MP from Karimnagar, resigned as convener of the State MPs’ Forum on Saturday following a heated argument with Vijayawada MP Lagadapati Rajagopal.Ponnam was irked by Rajagopal’s poser to him as to why he was continuing as heading the state MPs’ group if he was representing only the Telangana region.“I am sending in my resignation as convener to party president Sonia Gandhi with a humble request to her to accept it. This should be the beginning of bifurcation of the state. Let there be two conveners, two states and two chief ministers,” he said at Delhi.Earlier in the day, the Karimnagar MP demanded that Lagadapati quit the Congress if he did not like the party’s policy and that of Union home minister P Chidambaram’s statement made on December 9, 2009 initiating the process for formation of Telangana state. “It is better to leave the party if you (Lagadapati) do not like the party’s policies”, he said.Reacting sharply to Prabhakar’s comments that persons like him were creating hurdles to Telangana state formation, Rajagopal, speaking to media-persons at Vijayawada, said he did not understand why Prabhakar was clinging to the convener’s position while professing that he was ready for any sacrifice. “Forget Prabhakar resigning as an MP. He did not even resign as convenor though the body represented MPs of the Congress from the entire Andhra Pradesh,” he said.In the evening, Prabahakar announced his resignation.Rajagopal, who was initially angry with Bhongir MP Komatiredddy Rajagopal Reddy for saying that people in Seemandra region were not against separation and that they would settle for keeping Hyderabad as the common capital for some time and allocation of Rs 25,000 crore for building a new capital city for Andhra. While attacking Reddy, he trained his guns on Prabhakar as well.In reply to Rajagopal Reddy’s comments, Lagadapati said: “How can we lose our claim on Hyderabad? As much as 45 per cent of revenue to the state exchequer goes from Hyderabad.Thousands of crores of rupees was invested in Hyderabad as it is the capital of all the districts of the state.”