Hyderabad, Feb. 14: Fifteen Telangana MLAs, including two from the ruling Congress, put in their papers today, the move prompting a rally in their support by Osmania University students who later clashed with police.

The MLAs said they had quit to protest the terms of reference of the Sri Krishna Committee appointed by the Centre last week to examine the statehood demand. The terms included a clause for a united Andhra.

The group of 15 included 10 from statehood spearhead Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and one each from the BJP, Telugu Desam Party and the Praja Rajyam other than the two Congress legislators. “We gave our resignations unconditionally and hope many others, if they are truly interested in Telangana, will resign by tomorrow,” senior Congress MLA and former minister R. Damodar Reddy said after meeting Speaker N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.

Asked if they would attend the budget session from tomorrow, Damodar Reddy replied in the negative.

K.T. Rama Rao, TRS MLA and party president K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s son, who was among those who submitted their letters, spoke of going back to the people and working to realise the Telangana goal.

Another section of Congress legislators from the Telangana region, which has distanced itself from the TRS-led Joint Action Committee, met separately and said they would raise slogans during the governor’s address to the House tomorrow.

In the evening, the police used batons and fired in the air after Osmania University students took out a rally outside the campus in support of the MLAs who quit. Several students and policemen were injured in the clash. The students announced a gherao of the Assembly on February 25.