The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Women Welfare Minister may join Congress

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 05, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Women Welfare Minister may join Congress

By Our Staff Reporter

CUDDAPAH, APRIL 4. The Minister for Woman and Child Welfare, S. Saraswathi, who is peeved at being denied the TDP ticket for Kodur (SC) constituency, is likely to switch over to the Congress if the latter offered her the seat.

Ms. Saraswathi, who stayed put at Hyderabad, is likely to call on the former CLP leader, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, when he returns from New Delhi to Hyderabad tonight. There is a mixed reaction among Congress leaders amidst speculation that the Minister might join the party.

The Kodur constituency in-charge of Congress and mandal parishad president, Batyala Chengalarayulu, the key-man of the Congress in the segment, who is in Delhi along with Dr. Reddy, told The Hindu over telephone that he had no objection to admitting Ms. Saraswathi in the party subject to Dr. Reddy's approval. The Minister's claims for Kodur ticket could be considered only after she formally joined the Congress without imposing any pre-conditions, he observed. Neither he nor any Congressmen approached her so far, he said.

Mr. Chengalarayulu said that the Congress had short-listed three probables for allotment of Kodur ticket - the party leader, Easwaraiah, an advocate, Srinivasulu, and a sub-treasury officer at Kodur, Subbaramaiah. The decision to field Ms. Saraswathi as the Congress candidate, if the situation warranted, would be taken after consulting and convincing important party functionaries of the segment, he said.

Meanwhile, the Congress ticket aspirant, Gunti Venkateswara Prasad, who unsuccessfully contested the last elections, is however, opposed to admitting Ms. Saraswathi into the party. He claimed that the Pullampet mandal parishad president, Brahmananda Reddy, and a Kamma leader, Viswanatham Naidu, was also backing his candidature.

Asserting that he was the favourite for the Congress ticket, Dr. Prasad said the Minister was likely to call on Dr. Reddy in Hyderabad, but the situation was not yet clear.

He asserted that the aspirations of Congress functionaries must be taken into account before admitting the Minister, who posed hardship to Congressmen in the segment earlier. The Minister was not available for her comment.

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