RS poll in AP in rebel row

Hyderabad: Indiscipline within the ruling Congress, coupled with the state bifurcation issue has cast a shadow on the ongoing Rajya Sabha biennial polls.

On Tuesday, two rebel Congressmen filed nominations with the support of other legislators from the ruling party.  Besides them, six candidates, three from the Congress, two from the Telugu Desam and one from the Telangana Rashtra Samiti filed their papers as official nominees.

A total of nine nominations were received by Returning Officer S. Raja Sadaram at the end of filing of papers on Tuesday.

T. Subbarami Reddy, Dr K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao, Mr M.A. Khan (Congress), Thota Seetha Rama Laxmi, Garikapati Mohan Rao (Telugu Desam), Dr K. Kesava Rao (TRS), Adala Prabhakara Reddy, Dr K.V.V. Satyanarayana Raju alias Chaitanya Raju and Jajula Bhaskar (Independents) filed their papers.

A scrutiny of the nomination papers will be held on Wednesday and Friday will be the last day for withdrawal of nominations. If more than six candidates remain in the fray by Friday, polling will be held on February 7.

After more than a decade, the Congress is facing rebellion from party MLAs not over selection of candidates, but on bifurcation.

The presence of two “heavyweights”, Prabhakara Reddy, a contractor-turned-politician from Nellore district, and Chaitanya Raju, who runs a chain of educational institutions in East Godavari District, is giving jitters to the official nominees of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha elections. Both claim that they will win hands down as there are many Congress MLAs who will help them win as they want to teach a lesson to the Congress for having taken a decision to divide the state.

While Opposition TD’s candidates are comfortable without any rebel activity, the ruling Congress received a jolt when they noticed that MLC Chaitanya Raju had filed papers much before the Congress official nominees.

Then, an hour before the nomination process was to come to a close at 3 pm, sitting Congress MLA from Sarvepalli and former minister Prabhakara Reddy appeared before the Returning Officer to file nomination as an independent candidate. Almost 25 Seemandhra Congress legislators seem to have proposed the candidature of the two rebels.

A minimum of 10 voters (MLAs) need to propose each nomination to make it valid. One MLA can propose the candidature of a maximum six candidates as per the rules and Congress MLAs have appended their signatures for more than one nomination.

Officials could not announce the details of the nominations and the names of the proposers immediately after close of time.

PCC chief warns rebel candidates

Meanwhile, PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana warned the rebel candidates to withdraw their candidatures immediately or face disciplinary action.

The party has also started talking to the MLAs individually and is trying to pacify them. A few MLAs later approached the Returning Officer and submitted letters conveying that they had “withdrawn” their proposal to the particular candidate, which only compounded the confusion.

But sources said that once a nomination paper is filed with 10 signatures, it will be treated as valid unless the candidate withdraws his nomination.

Efforts are also on by T. Subbarami Reddy and Dr K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao to pacify the two rebels and see that they withdraw their nominations before January 31.

The Returning Officer will have to decide whether the nominations are valid or not on Wednesday. For example,  Jajula Bhaskar obtained only one MLA’s signature (Mr Mainampally Hanumantha Rao of the TD) and filed his papers which will be declared invalid due to insufficient number of proposers.
 
Botsa, JC fly off the handle

Botsa, JC fly off the handle
 A war of words broke out between PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana and former minister and senior Congress legislator J. C. Diwakar Reddy on Tuesday.
The spat happened in the presence of AICC secretaries near Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy’s office in the Assembly.

Diwakar Reddy was chatting with the media near the Chief Minister’s office when  Satyanarayana and AICC secretaries Tirunavakkarasu and Kuntia came out from the CM’s office.
When Satyanarayana went past him, Diwakar Reddy asked the former why the Congress was not fielding a fourth candidate even though it has many MLAs.  Diwakar Reddy also asked, “Are you threatening the Congress MLAs?”

To this, the PCC chief said, “If you have guts, quit the party and contest in the Rajya Sabha elections, but don’t play cheap politics.”
Reacting to this, Diwakar Reddy said he won’t leave the party but that  Satyanarayana should.
Diwakar Reddy alleged that the PCC president has colluded with the TRS and that there was a chance for a fourth candidate from the Congress; now he (Satyanarayana) had spoiled that chance. The PCC chief retorted that he never colluded with any one and alleged that Diwakar Reddy has colluded with independent candidates. This led to heated arguments between the two, leaving AICC leaders and other Congress MLAs surprised.

In the recent past, a verbal fight had taken place between the two over the phone.