The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Congress legislators offer to quit

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Tuesday, Apr 01, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Congress legislators offer to quit

Naidu accuses Congress MPs, MLAs of cornering irrigation contracts on benami names

Naidu specifies constituencies of the MLAs rather than name them
Tourism Minister threatens to lodge defamation charges against Naidu

HYDERABAD: Several Congress legislators offered to resign in the wake of allegations levelled by the leader of the Opposition N. Chandrababu Naidu against them, leading to a furore in the Assembly on Monday.

They challenged Mr. Naidu to prove the charges, and said they were ready to resign if he failed to establish the charges.

Initiating the debate on ‘no-confidence’ motion served by the Telugu Desam Party against the Chief Minister and his Ministers, Mr. Naidu said Ministers and Congress MPs and MLAs had become contractors to implement irrigation projects under benami names. Instead of mentioning the names of MLAs, he specified the constituencies represented by them. This sparked off a furore and led to vociferous protests from the members.

Uproar

His charges led to objections from the Treasury members, who wanted to know if Mr. Naidu had given relevant notices to raise these allegations. Speaker K. R. Suresh Reddy pointed out that notice had to be given if a member wished to make allegations against another legislator and ruled that any charge made without notice would not go on record.

At one stage, sharp exchanges took place between TDP members and N. Diwaker Rao (Congress) and J. Krishna Rao (Ind), who refuted the charges and offered to resign. When Mr. Diwakar Rao rushed towards the well of the House, he was restrained by the Congress members.

Protesting against Mr. Naidu’s charges, Tourism Minister Anam Ramnarayan Reddy said neither he nor his brothers were listed as contractors either in the State or elsewhere in the country.

He said that he was ready for any punishment if Mr. Naidu proved his allegation. Otherwise, he should apologise unconditionally or withdraw the remarks. He would not hesitate to file a defamation case.

Ms. Konda Surekha (Congress), while offering to resign, remarked that Mr. Naidu was targeting MLAs in his charges, and leaving out Ministers.

Responding to this, Y. Ramakrishnudu (Telugu Deam) contended that the Congress member herself admitted by implication, that the Ministers were corrupt.

Following this, Legislative affairs Minister K. Rosaiah, offered to resign as Minister and MLA if Mr. Ramakrishnudu could establish his interpretation of Ms Surekha’s remark by verifying the records.

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