Andhra Pradesh Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan on Monday made it clear that the government led by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy was not in minority and he had not asked the latter to prove his majority in the Assembly in view of the reported resignation of some Congress MLAs.
The Governor, who met Home Minister P. Chidambaram here to discuss the situation in the State in view of the Telangana stir, was reacting to a question posed by a journalist on whether the Kiran government had become a minority in view of the resignation of 26 Congress MLAs in support of Y.S.R. Congress president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy and two other party MLAs, plus one independent MLA supporting the government, quitting the Assembly membership to join the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, which is led by K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
“How can I react to something said orally [by three MLAs]? Moreover, the [resignation] papers of the 26 other MLAs were pending for decision before the Speaker of the Assembly,” Mr. Narasimhan said.
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He shot back “why should I?” when a scribe asked whether he would ask Mr. Kiran to prove his majority in the Assembly. Mr. Narasimhan said the situation in Telangana had become peaceful. Any decision on the separate demand had to be taken by the Centre, he said.
Mr. Chidambaram told journalists that the Centre might make a movement towards taking a decision on the separate Telangana State demand immediately after Bakrid on November 7.
Mr. Narasimhan said Health Minister and Congress general secretary in-charge of A.P., Ghulam Nabi Azad, had already told the various stakeholders that it was not possible for the Centre to take a decision in view of the ongoing festival season.
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Reacting to the decision of three Congress MLAs to join the T.R.S. — T. Rajaiah from Station Ghanpur in Warangal district, Jupally Krishna Rao of Kollapur in Mahabubnagar district and Somarapu Satyanarayana from Ramagundam in Karimnagar district — Congress leader P. Sudhakar Reddy said: “It is unfortunate that they had fallen into the trap of KCR.” He claimed that the Congress alone could give Telangana and the MLAs should have remained with the party.