BRS leadership furious at MLAs\' rebellion against minister

HYDERABAD:  The BRS leadership is learnt to have taken a serious view of the infighting between MLAs and the in0charge minister in Medchal-Malkajgiri district. Party leadership is reportedly angry at the MLAs holding a meeting against labour minister Ch. Malla Reddy, who is also in-charge minister for
Medchal-Malkajgiri district and voicing their grievances by speaking to the
media.

BRS working president and IT minister K.T. Rama Rao reportedly summoned the
MLAs and the minister on Monday to resolve the issue. Party sources said that BRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and Rama Rao issued a stern warning to all party leaders of serious consequences if they flout party discipline by going public against each other and damage the party's image when Assembly polls are round the corner.

There is a buzz in party circles that a cold war is brewing between Malla Reddy, who is also MLA of Medchal constituency and the five MLAs representing Assembly constituencies under the jurisdiction of Malkajgiri Lok Sabha constituency, including Bethi Subhash Reddy (Uppal), K.P. Vivekananda (Quthbullapur), Madhavaram Krishna Rao (Kukatpally), Mynampally  Hanumantha Rao (Malkajgiri) and Arekapudi Gandhi (Serilingampally) for the past few months. They say it came out in the open on Monday when Hanumantha Rao held a meeting with the other four MLAs to decide their future course of action against Malla Reddy.

The five MLAs were reportedly furious after they came to know that Malla Reddy had issued strict instructions to Medchal-Malkajgiri district collector not to approve any proposals or follow instructions issued by the five MLAs without his consent. Another reason for the resentment of MLAs was Malla Reddy giving major nominated posts to his followers from Medchal constituency against the tradition of adopting 'rotation basis' to cover all the Assembly constituencies in the district.

Speaking to the media on Monday, Hanumantha Rao said, "Malla Reddy is not
following protocol. As in-charge minister of the district, he is taking unilateral decisions without consulting respective MLAs. There are many aspirants for various nominated posts in all our constituencies because we could not give them opportunities to contest in GHMC elections. He appointed his followers in Medchal constituency as market committee chairman and library committee chairman. If Malla Reddy takes away all these posts to Medchal, how can we do justice to other leaders in the party?"

Rao said.  They took this issue to the notice of Malla Reddy but he ignored
them and ensured a GO was issued immediately confirming the appointments for
nominated posts with his followers.

"We are raising our voice in the interest of the party. If we ignore leaders
and cadre in constituencies who work sincerely and committedly, it's the
party that will pay the price in elections," Rao added.

Responding to these allegations, Malla Reddy said, "I was touring Gadwal
district to attend a few official programmes. I don't know why the five MLAs
met and what they discussed. There is no gap between me and them in my district. We are working together for the party and will continue to do so in the future. If there are any issues between us, we will discuss and resolve them amicably."