 | « Back to article | Print this article |
A senior Congress legislator and former minister from Telangana R Damodar Reddy held the CM responsible for the current crisis in Andhra Pradesh.
"After the first announcement of the Centre on Telangana last month, if the CM was firm and had immediately moved a resolution in the assembly, this crisis would not have arisen," he said.
He also took strong objection to CM's statement that because of the Telangana agitation industrialists, investors and Telugu film industry people were going away from the state. "Such statements of the CM will scare the industry," he said.
Earlier information technology minister K Venkat Reddy had also made a similar charge against the CM and Rosaiah has reportedly lodged a complaint with the party high command against the minister.
Damodar Reddy warned CM that if any action was taken against minister for IT Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, there will be serious consequences. "We will not keep quiet. He has the backing of four crore people of Telangana," he said
According to the sources, CM Rosaiah has lodged a complaint to the party high command against the minister for his remarks that he (Rosaiah) was behaving like the 'Chief Minister of Andhra region.'
Venkat Reddy, who hails from Telangana, has already tendered his resignation in support of the Telangana state and has refused to withdraw it along with other Telangana ministers. "When the minister has already resigned what is the point in lodging a complaint against him?" asked Damodar Reddy.
He also wanted to know why the CM did not lodge a complaint with the high command when the ministers from Andhra and Rayalseema regions had resigned and spoke against the Central leadership of Congress party on Telangana issue.
"There was nothing wrong in what Komatireddy said," said Damodar Reddy. Damodar Reddy said that whether Rosaiah was a capable chief minister or not should be left to the people to decide.
Hailing Venkat Reddy and higher education minister Sridhar Babu for not withdrawing their resignations, Damodar Reddy said that all the other Telangana ministers should emulate their examples.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Rosaiah has also come under attack from another senior leader and All India Congress Committee secretary K Keshav Rao who found fault with him for not fulfilling his promise to withdraw the cases booked against students and others associated with the Telangana agitation.
Quoting from the statement of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram that the Centre had asked the state government to withdraw the cases booked after November 29 and the CM had told him that he will withdraw the cases, Keshav Rao wondered why it was not implemented so far.
He also took 'strong objection' to the CM's statement that he would consult state governor Narasimhan on the issue. "It is not proper for the CM to consult the governor for each and every thing. The state is not under President's rule," he said.
Keshav Rao demanded that all the cases booked against the students and other agitators till now should be withdrawn immediately.
Meanwhile, several Congress leaders and ministers from Andhra and Rayalseema region have also become active in support of Rosaiah and against Telangana.
Minister Gade Venkat Reddy, a strong opponent of Telangana, said that so far the Congress president Sonia Gandhi or the party had not made any promise of formation of Telangana. He demanded that an independent state level committee with legal experts and others should be set up to go in to the issue of Telangana and decide whether Telangana state should be formed or not.
"The statement made by Chidambaram on starting the process for the formation of Telangana state was not that of Congress party," he said.