Mr Gopinath demanded that the Governor invoke Article 193
Talasani Srinivas Yadav
Hyderabad: The Telugu Desam seems to have decided to rake up afresh the controversy over the continuation of Mr Talasani Srinivas Yadav — whose resignation as TD MLA has not been accepted — in the Chandrasekhar Rao Cabinet. The party appears determined to raise the issue in the ongoing Assembly session. The TD’s newest angle of attack is that the government has not acted on a complaint on the matter forwarded by Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan to chief secretary Rajiv Sharma.
The complaint was filed by Telugu Desam legislator Maganti Gopinath. With the government not moving, the MLA has filed another letter with the Governor. The controversy has been going on for quite some time, due to the indecisiveness of Assembly Speaker S. Madhusudana Chary on two contentious issues — taking action on the resignation submitted by Mr Srinivas Yadav way back in December 2014 and the disqualification petition submitted by Telugu Desam Legislature Party a month before that.
On record, the TD has sought the Speaker's intervention to: 1. Accept Mr Yadav’s resignation as TD MLA and; 2. Disqualify him for defection.
Following this, in September, TD Jubilee Hills MLA Maganti Gopinath submitted three complaints to the Governor seeking Mr Yadav’s dismissal stating that he could not continue in the ministry as he had not been re-elected to the Assembly after the expiry of six months from the date of his resignation. Mr Gopinath demanded that the Governor invoke Article 193 and impose penalty on Mr Yadav for attending the Assembly session that started from September 23.
A matter of formality, the special chief secretary to the Governor on Septmber 18 forwarded Mr Gopinath’s complaint to the chief secretary for taking necessary action. Based on this development, Mr Gopinath wrote again to the Governor complaining against the chief secretary for not initiating any action.
Much depend on the Speaker, who is empowered to accept or reject the resignation by a legislator and also decide on disqualifying the legislator on the ground of defection. There has been an undue delay on the part of the Speaker in taking a decision on the two petitions pending before him.
Since Mr Yadav’s resignation is under “active consideration” of the Speaker, which means officially that his resignation has not taken place. The six-month deadline for a minister to get re-elected to the House would be enforceable only when the seat is declared vacant.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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