This has left his the 16-month-old party vertically divided as the two legislators of PRP from Telangana region, E Anil and Maheshwar Reddy, have raised a banner of revolt against Chiranjeevi. "By changing his stand over night he had lost entire credibility," said Maheshwar Reddy who was elected from Nirmal constituency in Adialabad district.

In its election manifesto, PRP had promised to work for a 'democratic Telangana state' but ever since the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram  announced the start of the process for the formation of Telangana state, like Congress and the Telugu Desam, PRP too suffered a major divide along the regional lines.

While Chiranjeevi is expected to explain the reasons behind his volte face when he formally announces his resignation, the party sources said that it was an outcome of realisation that the PRP did not have much of a future in the Telangana region, as 15 of its 17 assembly seats in the last polls had come from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema region.

PRP leadership was expected to allow the leaders from Telangana region to form their separate unit.

After formally submitting his resignation to the state assembly speaker Kiran Kumar Reddy, Chiranjeevi will leave for Tiruapti and is expected to go on fast.

So far 140 MLAs of Congress, TDP and PRP have submitted their resignations to the Speaker. 

Chiranjeevi made up his mind late on Wednesday