Congress may wield axe on dissident Legislators soon

As part of the exercise to rope in the five Legislators who declared their loyalty to former MP from Kadapa YS Jaganmohan Reddy back into the Congress fold, Chief Whip Bhatti Vikramarka on Wednesday met Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy at the Secretariat on Wednesday.

Mr Vikramarka had met the Chief Minister earlier on Tuesday and then had a discussion with Deputy Speaker Nadendla Manohar over the issue.

The Chief Whip is understood to have met Mr Jaganmohan Reddy’s loyalists A Amaranth Reddy and G Srikanth Reddy, to induce them to walk back into the Congress party.

So far Kamalamma, MLA from Budvel had been convinced and made to stay back with the Congress.

The Congress ‘ exercise apart, it is understood that the Legislators who won on the party ticket and declared their loyalties to Mr Jaganmohan Reddy, have been thinking to ‘sail’ with the parent party fearing disqualification or the ‘axe’ by the party leadership.

Deliberations have been going on for quite some time under the leadership of Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy not to spare those who switched sides for the reason that it may spread like a disease and more may walk out.

High Level discussions have been going on also to cut to size three former ministers Konda Surekha, Balineni Srinivas Reddy and Pilli Subhashchandra Bose as the time has arrived said a senior functionary.

It is also clear that the time is quite ripe as the most controversial and contentious by-elections to Kadapa Lok Sabha and Pulivendula assembly seats respectively are scheduled to be held shortly.

Going by the standards in the Kadapa district the ‘campaign’ had been going much in favour of the lone fighter Y S Jaganmohan Reddy despite the presence of the entire official machinery and over ten Ministers plus Legislators and another Central Minister of State for Industries A Saipratap camping in the district.

The congress cannot afford to take any chances in the ensuing elections as it was like ‘do or die’ business for the whole lot of the party leaders including APCC chief D Srinivas and the local influential Congress Legislators like D L Ravindra Reddy, Minister and candidate for Kadapa mp seat, J C Diwakar Reddy among others.

Not to speak of the stakes of Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy himself, who is involved in the most prestigious by-elections.

Never before a by-election was fought with such stakes and energy. Mr Jaganmohan Reddy had been giving sleepless nights to all concerned including TDP nominee M V Mysoora Reddy for the Kadapa MP seat.

The disqualification issue at this juncture is bound to attract the attention of the Chief Election Commissioner of India.

The decision rests with him, sources said.

But Deputy Speaker Nadendla Manhar is entitled to effect the said disqualification of those who defied the Congress party remains to be seen, another source said.

This is one of the reasons why Mr Vikramarka had been making rounds between the Chief Minister and the Deputy Speaker.

Sooner the ‘axe’ falls on the erring Congress legislators the better for the government ruled by the party in Andhra Pradesh as there were also indication from some sections that both TDP Supremo N Chandrababu Naidu’s and Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s ‘horoscope’ were not favourable after May.