Jagan meets Jaitley, Suravaram

Continuing the Save Democracy campaign, Leader of Opposition in AP Assembly Ys Jagan Mohan Reddy has met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, CPI General Secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy and leaders of other political parties to mobilize public opinion against the induction of turncoats in to the cabinet.

Speaking to media after meeting the Union Finance Minister, Jagan said, “We apprised the issue of giving cabinet berths to defectors and told him that the spirit of democracy and constitution is at stake by such deeds and since TDP is a coalition partner, such practices should be discouraged.”

Jagan said there is a petition pending against the 21 defectors with the Speaker of Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly seeking disqualification including the four who were given ministerial berths which is a blot of parliamentary democracy, he said. The Speaker has taken no action against the defectors and allowed them to sit in the treasury benches and four of them were now picked up for minister’s berth which is highly condemnable, he said.

“We have also given a representation to the Finance Minister about the AgriGold scam and how 19.5 lakh depositors from the state were duped by the Company and how people in power have been able to amass wealth and buy property at throw away prices without addressing the problems of the investors. We have also asked the Finance Minister to review the stand on Special Status as it is beneficial to state,” he said.

Earlier, Jagan Mohan Reddy has met CPI General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy seeking his Party support for the Save Democracy campaign and to strengthen the laws to disqualify turncoats within a time span if no action was taken by the Speaker.

Brushing aside the criticism about the cases he has been facing he said,’ these are false cases foisted against me with political motives. The cases were filed by Congress and TDP leaders for political gains and I was denied bail, which normally comes after 90 days but I was kept me in jail for 16 months. The investigation is going on and it is unfair to jump to any conclusion or pass remarks on the issue, he said.