The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : APCC trains guns on Lagadapati, Girish Sanghi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 24, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

APCC trains guns on Lagadapati, Girish Sanghi

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, NOV. 23. A broad-based meet of the Pradesh Congress Committee executive here on Tuesday took serious note of the "anti-Congress" stand of the two MPs -- Lok Sabha member from Vijayawada, L. Rajagopal and Rajya Sabha member, Girish Sanghi -- and sought disciplinary action against the two.

Several DCC presidents and PCC office-bearers felt that Mr. Rajagopal had written open letters to the Chief Minister on the tenders' imbroglio with mala fide intentions. Mr. Sanghi too had crossed the `Lakshmana Rekha' in undertaking a "smear campaign" with "motivated interests," they said.

`Helping TDP'

Both the MPs had stretched "the internal democracy" a bit too far and were deliberately fuelling the Telugu Desam campaign, they said. Malladi Vishnu, Chairman of the Vijayawada-Guntur-Tenali-Mangalagiri Urban Development Authority, and the DCC presidents -- D. Sridhar Babu and G. V. Ramana Reddy -- took exception to the "anti-Chief Minister" campaign of Mr. Rajagopal in the guise of blaming officials.

Mr. Sanghi was not even a primary member of the party but was made an MP, S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, secretary of the PCC, lamented seeking disciplinary action against him.

Harsha Kumar, MP and general secretary of the PCC, sought a detailed study of the reasons for losing two ZPTCs in East Godavari (Ravulapalem and Kothapet) vacated by Minister, G. Surya Rao and Congress MLA Ch. Jaggi Reddy, before the general elections.

Another secretary, P. Rangaiah, demanded action against the Municipal Minister, Koneru Ranga Rao, for showing "favouritism" to an official (father-in-law of his granddaughter) publicly and later defending his action. "Is that the way Ministers function?" he asked.

Senior Congress leaders also questioned Mr. Rajagopal's business practices. "He has raised the issue of loss to the exchequer in the tender process due to the High Court verdict. But he should also come out with facts in inflicting a greater loss due to his power project (Lanco-Kondapalli unit)," some of them remarked.

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