JOIN USAP Cong in trouble as 24 legislators quit
The day also witnessed formal merger of actor-turned politician K Chiranjeevi-led Praja Rajyam Party (TRP) with the Congress. The PRP has 18 legislators, including Chiranjeevi. However, one legislator of the party loyal to Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy resigned on Monday.
Three MLAs from the Telangana region, including Konda Surekha, Satyavathi and actress Jayasudha did not submit their resignations claiming they had already put in their papers over the statehood issue.
Though Speaker Nadendla Manohar had rejected the resignations of 101 legislators for Telangana in July without giving any reason, they said the cause for which they submitted letters still held good.
With the resignation of 24 members, the strength of the Congress strength, even after the merger of PRP, stood at 148. While the opposition has the support of 106 members. The lone YSR Congress MLA and wife of Rajasekhara Reddy, Y S Vijayalakshmi, has not yet resigned.
The mass resignation drama was triggered by the CBI naming the late chief minister as a co-conspirator in the FIR registered against his son Jaganmohan Reddy in a case of illegal assets. TDP legislators Nallapureddy Prasanna Kumar Reddy and Bala Nagireddy were the first to arrive and hand over the resignation letters to Legislature secretary S Raja Sadaram. The rebel Congress MLAs came in procession from their party office in Banjara hills after paying floral tributes to YSR and Ambedkar. Later, Jagan supporters boarded a special flight to Renigunta (Tirupati) from where they will proceed to Idupulapaya in Kadapa district to pay respects to YSR at his “samadhi.”
Since the Speaker is away at Tenali, resigning MLAs had to submit their papers to legislature secretary. Former minister P Subash Chandra Bose said the resignations were tendered in protest against the attempt to malign the image Y S Rajasekhara Reddy who brought the Congress to power twice in the state.
“If the Speaker refuses to accept our resignations, then we will be left with no option but to approach the Governor and the Supreme Court. We cannot continue any longer in a party which had launched a vilification campaign after YSR’s untimely death,” Bose said.
APCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana, apparently emboldened by the timely entry of Chiranjeevi and 17 of his MLAs into the party, accused Jagan of offering Rs 8 crore to Rs 10 crore to each MLA and hoped the initial enthusiasm of Congress MLAs in shifting loyalty will soon die down.
In case of any no-confidence motion, the state Congress can fall back on the seven-member Majlis Ittehudul Muslimeen and also three independents who are all associate members of the Congress legislature party and thus claim a strength of 158 MLAs.