Congress party was left red faced after allegations surfaced that a senior leader had reportedly bribed party MLCs to back his candidature for the post of Leader of Opposition in the Telangana Legislative Council.
Election of former PCC chief D. Srinivas as the Leader of Opposition and former Minister Md. Ali Shabbir as the Deputy Leader was overshadowed by the allegations levelled by MLC N. Rajalingam on Tuesday.
AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh and former Union Minister Vayalar Ravi, who had come to oversee election of the CLP and Leader of Opposition in Council, were taken aback when Mr. Rajalingam alleged that Mr. Srinivas had tried to seek his backing by offering money.
Sources privy to the deliberations said that AICC leaders took the views of 16 out of 17 MLCs on the Leader of Opposition. When voting took place, Mr. Srinivas and Mr. Shabbir secured eight votes each. MLC Santosh Kumar, who could not make it, sent a letter supporting the former PCC chief. Based on this, name of Mr. Srinivas was announced by Mr. Singh.
Immediately, all hell broke loose with Mr. Rajalingam opposing Mr. Srinivas’s election. “How can I support a leader, who tries to bribe party legislators to get elected?” he alleged. Others like K. R. Amos wanted a minority leader to be elected while MLC K. Yadava Reddy sought to know why two leaders from same district were preferred.
Sources said that MLCs were divided into two groups backing Mr. Srinivas and Mr Shabbir respectively. Leaders backing Mr. Srinivas alleged that MLCs, who did not see eye to eye with the former PCC chief joined hands with Mr. Shabbir to defeat the former PCC chief. “Some of them have grouse against me. The allegations of bribe is completely false,” Mr. Srinivas told The Hindu .
Mr. Shabbir said a majority of the MLCs had revolted against decision to elect Mr. Srinivas. “It is unfortunate that leaders resorted to giving money to win elections,” he remarked.
