The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Charges pour in against Keshava Rao

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Thursday, May 10, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Charges pour in against Keshava Rao

Special Correspondent

Suspension orders raise the hackles of party leaders

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee's action in suspending three MLAs -- Naresh Agarwal, Adala Prabhakar Reddy and M. Chandrasekhar Reddy -- has once again driven a wedge between party leaders from Coastal Andhra and Telangana. APCC president K. Keshava Rao is increasingly coming under fire for his "biased decision" in initiating disciplinary action against those from the coastal region while sparing the leaders from Telangana who sabotaged party interests in the Council elections.

Coastal Andhra leaders argue that Dr. Keshava Rao was acting more like a Telangana region president ignoring the interests of the party in other regions. On the other hand,

Senior Congress legislator from the Telangana region -- P. Janardhan Reddy and MLC, Palvai Goverdhan Reddy -- assailed his decision to serve a show cause notice on Shadnagar MLA P. Shankar Rao without initiating action against others in the region for working against the party's interests in the Council elections.

Both of them wondered whether it was proper to target only Dr. Shankar Rao for speaking against the `injustice' done to him in denying him a Cabinet berth.

Turning a blind eye

The APCC chief had turned a blind eye to acts of sabotage of the party's electoral prospects in the Council polls from the Local Authorities Constituencies in Mahabubnagar and Karimnagar districts. Even in Nizamabad, the Congress nominee just scraped through.

Congress MPs like Panabaka Lakshmi and Chegondi Harirama Jogaiah have already attacked the PCC leadership for acting against only the Andhra leaders. Even MLAs like V. Vasanth Kumar and D. L. Ravindra Reddy are also saying that the suspensions were not justifiable.

Dr. Keshava Rao's remarks on the criteria for deciding seniority in the party has also irked senior leaders of Andhra region like G. Venkat Reddy. Meanwhile, Mr. Prabhakar Reddy and Mr. Chandrasekhar Reddy lodged their protest against their suspension with K. V. P. Ramachandra Rao, advisor to the Chief Minister on Public Affairs, on Tuesday.

They said that the defeat of C. V. Sesha Reddy in the Council elections from Nellore was more on account of his own anti-party activities in the past.

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