The Hindu : Front Page : YSR rejects demand for resignation

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Thursday, Mar 02, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

YSR rejects demand for resignation

Special Correspondent

`TDP demand is a case of the pot calling the kettle black'

HYDERABAD: Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy has rejected Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu's demand for his resignation in the wake of the Election Commission's decision to countermand the Assembly byelection in Visakhapatnam-I Assembly constituency.

He has described it as a case of the pot calling the kettle black since the Election Commission has stated that those huge amounts of money have been seized from persons belonging to the Telugu Desam Party. Yet, Mr. Naidu is demanding his resignation. The Government has no plans of challenging the EC's decision in a court, he has added.

Talking to presspersons here on Wednesday, the Chief Minister pointed out that TDP leaders were nabbed carrying more than Rs.7 lakhs in cash whereas only two Congressmen were caught with Rs.7,000, all accountable money. "Who is at fault?" he asked.

Refusing to comment on the Election Commission's decision to countermand the poll, he said: "The truth will come out one day." Whether it was proper to order re-poll in the entire constituency, he said: "I can not comment on it. But, your (journalist) colleagues were saying in the morning that the EC had over-reacted."

EC misled?

Meanwhile, the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) too objected to the TDP's demand for the Chief Minister's resignation on the ground that the commission had not indicted the Government in any way. Speaking to reporters, G. Muddukrishnama Naidu, MLA, and K. Ramakrishna and N. Raghuveera Reddy, both Ministers, said the TDP had managed to mislead the EC out of fear that the party would lose the byelection.

They said the ruling party had neither misused the official machinery nor did many of its Ministers and MLAs campaign during the elections. The TDP had pressed several MPs and MLAs for the campaign well in advance while hardly three Ministers canvassed full-time for the Congress. The Chief Minister stayed away from the campaign unlike the TDP president.

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