The issue of expulsion of two Congress MLAs Komatireddy Venkata Reddy and A. Sampath Kumar, that was put on hold by the High Court, further gathered momentum with the party deciding to meet Assembly Speaker Madhusudhana Chary on Monday and ask him to restore the MLA status to both the legislators as directed by the court. If no action is taken by the Speaker, the party would file a contempt petition in the court.
This will be followed by a representation to President Ramnath Kovind explaining how democracy is being ‘suppressed’ by the Telangana government. The party also plans to hold public meetings on this issue at Alampur and Khammam and a one-day hunger strike by all the MLAs.
Seniors in team
The team meeting the Speaker will also have senior leaders like S. Jaipal Reddy, who has immense experience in the legislatures to explain to the Speaker on the situation, and former Speakers like K. Suresh Reddy and Nadendla Manohar.
“We will take this to the logical end with constant pressure on the government,” TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said after a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) at CLP leader K. Jana Reddy’s residence here on Friday morning. He said 10 lakh pamphlets would be distributed in all constituencies explaining how Chief Minister K. Chandrashekara Rao was “stifling the voices of even MLAs. The Chief Minister has no right to continue in the seat if he can’t implement the High Court order.”
Earlier in the meeting, Mr. Sampath Kumar explained the present situation and put forward several proposals to bring pressure on the government that were accepted by the CLP. However, he said there was no need for resignation of all the Congress MLAs and the CLP leadership and they should use their present positions to expose the Chief Minister.
Mr. Jana Reddy defended the conduct of CLP meeting at his residence saying it was organised urgently and informally to discuss the latest development.
CM threatening RTC staff
CLP deputy leader T. Jeevan Reddy questioned the threats of the Chief Minister to the RTC employees for announcing their decision to go on strike on their demands. This indicated the “dictatorial attitude” of the CM and the employees will not accept such threats, he said.
