Congress rebel MLAs may get the axe from Speaker

Leadership to ask Nadendla Manohar to accept their resignations

The Congress leadership is likely to appeal to the Speaker, Nadendla Manohar, to accept the resignation of rebel MLAs who are sailing with the YSR Congress.

Party leaders want to pre-empt any move by the rebels to cause embarrassment by cross voting during the election of Legislative Council members from the Assembly later this month. The leaders feel it is better to get rid of such legislators by prevailing upon the Speaker to accept their resignation during the budget session of the Assembly commencing from March 13.

Polls on March 21

Elections to the Council vacancies are scheduled on March 21 when members from the Assembly would elect 10 members for the Upper House. Sources in the PCC maintain that the party leadership may write to the Speaker urging him to accept the resignation of the rebels.

So far, Congress MLAs R.V.S.K.Ranga Rao (Bobbili), A.K.Srinivas (Eluru), M. Rajesh (Chintalapudi) and Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy (Punganur) have submitted their resignation letters to the Speaker.

While the first three are with the YSR Congress, Mr. Ramachandra Reddy quit his seat owing to political differences with Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy. In fact the PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana has gone on record that at least nine rebels were as good as expelled from the party for their association with the YSR Congress. Interestingly, only four of the nine have submitted their resignation letters. Kakinada City MLA Dwarampudi Chandrasekhara Reddy has quit the party membership, while Machilipatnam MLA Perini Venkataramaiah resigned his post of Government Whip.

Congress leaders say that by accepting the resignation, the party can dent the support the YSR Congress is expecting in the Council elections. The Congress has 156 members, including one associate member, and is confident of winning at least five seats on its own strength. It can easily fight for the sixth seat but is wary of the role of rebels, who could embarrass the leadership by indulging in cross voting.

Meanwhile, there was hectic activity in the Congress with aspirants for the Council tickets making a beeline to the PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana to consider their names. Uncertainty over filling nominated posts in the corporations boards has forced several Congress leaders to submit applications for the Council tickets. All the outgoing Congress MLCs are lobbying hard for another term. Equally determined are former Ministers and legislators and party seniors. Former Ministers Md. Ali Shabbir, Md. Fareeduddin, ex-MLAs P.V.Rajeswara Rao, N. Varadarajulu Reddy, Veerabhadraswamy, PCC functionaries Bhamidipati Ramamurthy, Gidugu Rudraraju, outgoing MLC P.V.Ranga Rao and others are hopeful that the party would consider them for the tickets.