HYDERABAD: By appointing Arekapudi Gandhi as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has dealt a pre-emptive blow to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).
The Opposition party has been expecting that former minister T Harish Rao would be appointed to the position.
Gandhi technically is still a BRS MLA though he joined the Congress recently. This way, Revanth has “honoured” the tradition of appointing an MLA from Opposition party and yet at the same time retained it with the Congress. The BRS has raised a hue and cry, after it became clear how a very important position eluded the party.
The Congress leaders describe Revanth’s decision as a tit for tat against the BRS for engineering defections from the Congress into the BRS when the latter was in power.
BRS upset as CM did not even bother to inform KCR
The BRS is seething with rage ever since the Speaker nominated Gandhi instead of Harish Rao as the chairman of the PAC. BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao had recommended Harish Rao’s name for the post as, by tradition it should go to the legislator nominated by the Opposition party president. The BRS argues that it was a clear violation of rules. On top of this, the chief minister, who is the leader of the House, did not even bother to inform his choice of Gandhi to KCR.
The Congress circles view Gandhi’s appointment by the chief minister as a move to checkmate KCR in the political chess game. The Congress leaders said that the chief minister came up with the strategy to prevent Harish Rao from becoming the chairman of the PAC.
The PAC is a very important committee since it has the power to audit the state government’s accounts. Had Harish Rao been appointed, the Congress would have become vulnerable to the probing questions of the BRS leader who is good at finances. In fact, he was finance minister in the previous BRS government.
The Congress leaders contend that the sins of the BRS are coming back to visit the pink party leaders.
They recall how the BRS had appointed MIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi as the PAC chairman, though it was a friendly party of the BRS then, when the post should go to the Opposition party.
When BRS rejected Naidu’s proposal to appoint Revanth
The development has sparked a discussion within both the BRS and Congress, bringing spotlight on how the PAC chairman’s post was denied to the TDP during the BRS’s first term in power. The Congress leaders recall TDP president
N Chandrababu Naidu proposing the names of A Revanth Reddy and Errabelli Dayakar Rao for appointment as members of the PAC but the pink party did not consider Revanth’s name at all.
The Congress MLAs also recall that, in 2014, Chandrababu Naidu had proposed Revanth’s name for legislature party leader’s post in the Telangana Assembly, but the BRS did not entertain the request.
The ruling party MLAs state that the Speaker of Assembly, G Prasad Kumar and the chief minister have accommodated more opposition party MLAs in the PAC, Estimates Committee and Public Undertaking committee as per the rules.
Meanwhile, BRS leaders — Harish Rao and V Prashanth Reddy — are contemplating taking up the issue with the Governor.
