Hyderabad: Senior Congress functionaries of Digvijay Singh and Jairam Ramesh on Thursday slammed BJP-led NDA government, accusing it of “running away” from facing a crucial test in the form of voting on K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao's Private Member’s Bill seeking amendment to the AP Bifurcation Act to include Special Category Status to AP by getting the Rajya Sabha adjourned sine die on Friday.
Speaking to the media in Delhi along with Congress MPs from AP and APCC president N. Raghuveera Reddy, the senior leaders said that Parliamentary affairs minister M. Venkaiah Naidu has conspired with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to avoid taking up the Private Member’s business on Friday to escape a major embarrassment to the government which has no majority in the Upper House.
They said that when the Business Advisory Committee met on Thursday to decide Friday’s agenda, ruling party did not agree for the voting as demanded by the Congress. The House will only take up speeches thanking the 57 retiring members and then will be adjourned sine die.
“This is a clear-cut conspiracy hatched by Venkaiah Naidu, it was he who mooted the special status issue to AP. After coming to power he wants to avoid it. What face will he have if the Rajya Sabha passes the Bill?” Mr Digvijay Singh asked.
Mr Ramesh, who will be retiring as MP from AP quota next month said that the Chief Ministers of AP and TS were pressurising the Centre to amend the Act for increasing the Assembly seats to accomodate all the “defector” MLAs, but were not interested in the amendment for the special status.
“If not in this session, voting will certainly take place in the monsoon session; let us see how BJP and TD will avoid embarrassment,” Mr Ramesh said. Senior Rajya Sabha member T. Subbarami Reddy said that special status was the right of residuary AP and the Union government cannot escape from its responsibility of implementing the assurance given by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Rajya Sabha two years ago.
