Jaganmohan Reddy, whose party has nine MPs, had already announced last month that his party parliamentarians would quit on April 6, at the end of the budget session, if the special category status was not granted.
In an embarrassment for the Congress, a party MP from Andhra Pradesh loyal to YSR Congress chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy on Wednesday resigned from the Lok Sabha.
Setting aside its differences with the Congress, the YSR Congress Party of Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy on Wednessay decided to support the candidatures of United Progressive Alliance candidates -- Pranab Mukherjee for president and Hamid Ansari for vice president.
The ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh landed in a tricky situation on Thursday after the candidate it chose to field for the Kadapa Lok Sabha by-election refused to participate in the polls. After a desperate search for an ideal candidate, the Congress decided to field Kandula Rajamohan Reddy against YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy in Kadapa, after the former formally joined the party on Thursday afternoon along with his brother Kandula Sivananda Reddy.
The ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday appeared to be heading for fresh trouble with 29 MLAs loyal to Y S Jaganmohan Reddy deciding to quit in protest against mention of late YSR's name in the FIR of CBI in its probe in the case related to the Kadapa MP.
Cracking the whip, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Thursday suspended 18 MPs from Andhra Pradesh for rest of the session after unprecedented pandemonium broke out in the House over the Telangana issue.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar rejected the resignations submitted by 13 MPs from Andhra Pradesh, including ten from Congress and two of YSR Congress, against the decision on Telangana, holding these were "not voluntary or genuine". The YSR Congress MPs included party chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.
YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy has resigned as Kadapa MP in protest against "unilateral and arrogant posturing" of Congress party on the proposed division of Andhra Pradesh but stopped short of spelling out his party's stand on the statehood issue.
Lok Sabha and assembly polls on May 7 in Seemandhra seem to have narrowed down to a N Chandrababu Naidu versus Y S Jaganmohan Reddy fight, with the TDP chief seeking a comeback while the YSRC supremo is looking to expand his party's footprint in the political arena.
Proceedings in Parliament were paralysed for the third day running over a number of issues, including Telangana and death of 40 children in Muzaffarnagar relief camps, preventing the notices for a no-confidence motion from being taken up on Wednesday.
