HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who startled his political opponents with his move of paving way for bypolls in the two Assembly segments- Nalgonda and Alampur, by ensuring expulsion of two Congress members, who had represented these seats, from the Assembly for their “unruly” behaviour, has dropped enough hints that the ruling TRS is ready to face bypolls not only in these segments but also in all the constituencies represented by the Congress.
Throwing an indirect challenge to the Congress members, who have been saying that they were ready to submit resignations en masse from the Assembly, Rao on Wednesday asked them to do so. “For every thing, Congress leaders need the permission of their Delhi bosses. They are now saying that they are ready to quit their MLA posts, once they get permission from their high command. Is it a big thing to resign en masse from the House? Who has prevented them from quitting their posts? If they want, they can do it. We have no qualms in this regard,” the Chief Minister said while addressing the State Assembly, during a debate on motion of thanks to the Governor’s address.
Defending the Assembly’s decision to expel the Congress legislators, Rao said punishment would be given to two more Congress MLAs as they too were found guilty in the “headphones hurling incident”.
Calling Congress party as No.1 villain of the people of Telangana, Rao, used his two-hour-long speech in the House to justify his decision to engineer defections from opposition parties to the ruling party, saying that he had done all these things to achieve political stability in the new State. Likewise, while hitting back at BJP leader G Kishan Reddy, the Chief Minister tried to keep them in good humour by saying that hard working Kishan Reddy would become CM one day.
On the other hand, the two expelled members - Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and SA Sampath Kumar, sent an online petition to the Election Commission urging it not to accept the State’s recommendation that the two seats, represented by them, had fallen vacant. “There is no substantial evidence to support the claim of the treasury benches that our act had caused injury to the right eye of the Council chairman. We were not given opportunity to explain our version in the House. Our expulsion from the House is in violation of Parliamentary procedures and practices. Disqualifying us from the TS Assembly after issuance of notification for Rajya Sabha polls is in violation of Parliamentary norms,” the two leaders said.
‘UP bypoll results indicate political realignment’
The crushing defeat of BJP in two crucial bypolls in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar shows the growing anti-BJP and anti-Congress sentiment among the people, TRS MP from Karimnagar B Vinod Kumar has said. His comments comes in the wake of his party president and CMK Chandrasekhar Rao’s plans to float a Third Front.
Priority for welfare, irrigation inTS budget
Welfare, Irrigation and Agriculture will get priority in the 2018-19 Budget that will be presented by Finance MinisterE Rajender in the Assembly on Thursday at 11 am. The Budget is likely to touch `1.80 lakh crore. The new scheme to be presented this year is the `8,000 crore worth investment support for farmers. The government is also expected to increase assistance under Kalyan Laxmi scheme to `1 lakh.