Telugu Desam will launch a fresh campaign on Monday to mount pressure on the State government seeking the resignation of ‘tainted’ Ministers named in the assets case against Kadapa MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy and those who allegedly violated provisions of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act.
TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu will lead a large delegation of party MPs, MLAs and MLCs to the Raj Bhavan at 4 p.m. to request Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan to sack a dozen Ministers if they do not resign.
The resignation of Central Ministers Pawan Kumar Bansal and Ashwini Kumar was the immediate provocation for TDP to step up its demand for action against Ministers in the State, sources said.
The TDP had stalled Assembly proceedings in March with the demand that five Ministers – Dharmana Prasada Rao, P. Sabita Indra Reddy, Ponnala Laxmaiah, Kanna Laxminarayana and J. Geeta Reddy – who were served notices by the Supreme Court for issuing 26 controversial government orders be sacked. Of them, Mr. Prasada Rao and Ms. Sabita Indra Reddy also figured in two of the five charge-sheets filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the case against Jagan.
Mr. Rao had submitted his resignation but the Chief Minister refused to accept it.
Ms. Sabita Indra Reddy also offered to resign but she was dissuaded by the Chief Minister. In this background, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu accused the Chief Minister of shielding these Ministers.
The resignation of the Central Ministers on corruption charges gave ammunition to the TDP to mount a fresh offensive against the government.
The TDP got support from within the Congress as Rajya Sabha member V. Hanumantha Rao and MLA P. Shanker Rao also demanded the dismissal of Ministers saying it would otherwise send a wrong message that the party had adopted double standards on the issue.
