Congress threatens No-Trust

The four-hour strategy meeting of CLP discussed several issues including farmers’ suicides, crop losses and prevailing drought conditions. It was decided to raise important issues through adjournment motions everyday and insist on immediate discussions on the same.

“If the government is not prepared to listen to the Opposition and tries to postpone discussions on key issues, we may move a No Confidence Motion against the Council of Ministers so that all issues can be debated to expose the government’s negligent attitude towards farmers,” said CLP secretary Mr T. Rammohan Reddy.

However, the Congress Legislative Party meeting also expose differences among the members. The Congress legislators insisted that Leader of Opposition K. Jana Reddy lead the attack against the government in the Assembly more aggressively.

They said that previous experiences in the Assembly had showed that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was trying to be friendly towards Mr Jana Reddy and the latter had also been going soft on him. Responding to their comments Mr Jana Reddy reportedly asked them to raise the issues in whatever manner they thought appropriate and he would keep quiet. But after much discussion, he agreed to lead the party from the front in attacking the government.

The members also pointed out that in the name of re-designing and re-engineering irrigation projects, the CM was trying to stall the progress of all on-going projects taken up by previous Congress governments and wanted Mr Jana Reddy to raise the issue. However, Mr Jana Reddy told them that there was nothing wrong in redesigning if it would be beneficial for the state. This was objected by the others members and there was a heated argument.

Meanwhile, former minister D.K. Aruna and her brother, Makthal MLA C. Rammohan Reddy, along with Wanaparthy legislator G. Chinna Reddy, stayed away from the meeting alleging the CLP leadership's non-serious approach towards the issue of TRS MLA Guvvala Balaraju manhandling the Makthal MLA recently.

Similarly, party MLC Ponguleti Sudhakara Reddy staged a walkout from the meeting, alleging that the senior leaders were not taking up the cause of the seven mandals of Khammam district going to AP seriously in spite of an ordinance by the Narendra Modi government.

He said that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had failed to take up the issue and had also failed to take an all-party delegation to Delhi to pressurise the Centre for revocation of the ordinance, which he had promised after the first Cabinet meeting held last year.

Mr Sudhakara Reddy demanded that the CLP leadership take up the issue as a priority item in the ensuing Assembly session. After waiting for a response for a few minutes, he staged a walkout.