Hyderabad: Telangana Congress has decided to petition Assembly Speaker S. Madhusudhana Chary and Council Chairman Swami Goud seeking disqualification of the three party MLAs and two MLCs who joined the TRS.
Similarly, the Congress high command will move a petition before Lok Sabha Speaker seeking disqualification of Nalgonda MP Gutta Sukhender Reddy. The MP and five legislators had joined the TRS recently.
Sources in the Congress said that necessary documents and documentary evidence was being prepared to seek disqualification of Miryalaguda MLA N. Bhaskar Rao, Khammam MLA Puvvada Ajay Kumar and Makthal MLA Rammohan Reddy and MLCs Farooq Hussain and M.S. Prabhakar. The CPI plans similar action against its lone Deverkonda MLA Ravinder Kumar Ramavath.
Though CLP leader K. Jana Reddy moved petitions against earlier defectors, the Speaker is yet to take action. Congress has also moved the High Court in this regard.
AICC general secretary in-charge of TS affairs Digvijay Singh, who is on a two-day tour of the state, held discussions in this regard with TPCC chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and Mr Jana Reddy.
It is learnt Mr Singh asked party leaders to pursue pending anti-defection cases and take them to their logical end. Interestingly, all Congress legislators, in open defiance of Anti Defection Act, joined the TRS by accepting pink “khandwas” from TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao and other TRS leaders.
Mr Sukhender Reddy did not wear the pink khandwa publicly on Wednesday, but he and other Congress leaders did so when they called on the Chief Minister at his camp office.
“Sukender Reddy tried to evade evidence. If he had decided to quit Congress why did he not wear pink khandwa at the public meeting? It only shows how cunning he is. Unlike the Assembly Speaker, the Lok Sabha Speaker takes prompt action if defection is proved. Probably the TRS doesn’t want early byelection,” said Mohd Ali Shabbir, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council.
Meanwhile, Mr Sukhender Reddy refuted Mr Singh charge and asserted he would resign MP seat at an appropriate time. “I did not quit for the sake of contracts. Digvijay should look back at the own party affairs. Palvai Govardhan Reddy fielded his daughter as Independent candidate defying party in last polls,” he said.
TPCC vows to fight for better compensation
The Congress has decided to fight for better compensation for all those displaced due to various irrigation and other projects in TS.
Terming the TS government’s GO on land acquisition, which was struck down by the HC) as ‘clueless’ AICC SC cell president Koppula Raju said UPA land acquisition policy framed under the leadership of Congress president Sonia Gandhi provided succour to farmers and others.
“Sonia Gandhi provided huge relief to farmers through the land acquisition policy. We will fight for its implementation so that farmers and others get better relief and rehabilitation package,” he said, addressing a workshop on land acquisition at the Gandhi Bhavan here on Thursday.
Gadwal Congress MLA D.K. Aruna alleged that the government was using brokers to forcibly take over agriculture and other lands under the Palamur irrigation project.
“On pretext of redesigning irrigation projects, money is being looted. CM’s office decides and selects contractors for the projects. Farmers are duped in the name of land acquisition,” she alleged.
Ms Aruna also demanded carving of new Jogulamba district from the present Mahbubnagar district. Lashing out at the TRS government for its anti-farmer policies, TPCC chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said, “GO 123 is a curse on Telangana farmers. Congress will fight for safeguarding the rights of farmers in the state.”
He said that the state government was deceiving farmers using this GO and was trying to bypass the Central laws on land acquisition. Stating that UPA-II had in 2013 brought a comprehensive land acquisition law with full guarantee of interests to the farmers, Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy accused the state government of ignoring it now.
