Veteran Congress leader and Andhra Pradesh Sports and Culture Minister M Satyanarayana Rao on Tuesday sent in his letter of resignation from the state Cabinet as well as the legislative assembly to Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.

The minister decided to put in his papers after initially refusing to do so in response to the announcement of TRS president and former Union minister K Chandrasekhar Rao that he was resigning from the Lok Sabha.

Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president K Keshav Rao called on Satyanarayana Rao, popularly known as MSR, at his residence. Both the leaders discussed the day's developments and finally Satyanarayana Rao took the decision to send in his resignation letter to the chief minister, who is also the Congress Legislature Party leader, to keep his word.

Keshav Rao later took Satyanarayana Rao's letter and handed it over to Dr Rajasekhar Reddy at his residence.

Sources said that the chief minister called up All India Congress Committee general secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh affairs Digvijay Singh and apprised him of the resignation letter from Satyanarayana Rao. Digvijay Singh is understood to have advised the chief minister not to accept the resignation.  

It may be recalled that on Monday, Satyanarayana Rao had dared Chandrasekhar Rao to quit his Lok Sabha seat and seek re-election from Karimnagar on separate Telangana issue. He had offered to quit the ministerial post and Assembly membership to contest against Chandrasekhar Rao. He had also put forth the condition that whosoever lost the polls must take political sanyas and stop talking about separate Telangana state issue again.

Both KCR and MSR belong to Velama (forward) caste. While MSR hails from Karimnagar district, KCR is a native of Siddipet in neighbouring Medak district. MSR was elected to Lok Sabha three times from Karimnagar during 1971-1980 and became a legislator for the first time in 2004 and joined the Y S Rajasekhar Reddy Cabinet. He had a long stint as an All India Congress Committee general secretary during Indira Gandhi's [Images] stewardship.

KCR, on the other hand, was elected to the Assembly five times from Siddipet -- his home town -- and served as a minister in the Telugu Desam governments. He quit deputy speaker's post and State Assembly in 2001 for launching TRS to spearhead the movement for separate Telangana state. He was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 2004 from Karimnagar constituency and became a minister in the United Progressive Alliance government. He quit the Union Cabinet on August 22, 2006.