After the government issued the Gazette notifying two vacancies in the Assembly in view of the expulsion of two Congress MLAs, the Congress party wrote to the Election Commission charging the government with hatching a conspiracy to deny the members from participating in the Rajya Sabha elections.
In a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner of India, Congress leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy requested it to keep the notification sent by the Speaker in abeyance and not to issue any notification to fill the vacancies along with elections to Karnataka Assembly. He said the expelled MLAs have also challenged their expulsion in the Court apart from sending an online complaint to the Election Commission.
He said a delegation of Congress would meet the Election Commission on Thursday to explain the events that took place in the Telangana Assembly and how the MLAs were expelled at a lightning speed without being given a chance to express their point of view.
The letter also said that MLAs Komatireddy Venkata Reddy from Nalgonda and S.A. Sampath Kumar from Alampur constituencies were also the proposers of the Congress candidate for Rajya Sabha elections. The expulsion was done to deny them voting in the elections.
The letter also enclosed copies of newspaper clippings where Legislative Affairs Minister T. Harish Rao stating that by-elections would be held for the two segments along with Karnataka elections to indicate that the government had done it with pre-determination and using ‘undemocratic’ means.
Deeksha continues
Meanwhile, the two-day Deeksha by the Congress MLAs continued with supporters from various parts of the State descending on the Gandhi Bhavan apart from host of leaders from various organisations. The Congress leaders reiterated that their suspension was a conspiracy by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao fearing they would expose his failures in the budget session.
Mr. Shabbir Ali said anger against Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao would explode like Tsunami and people would revolt against the TRS if it continued the suppression of democratic voices. He said the government did not follow the basic procedures like speaking to the Leaders of Opposition on such a major decision and did not refer the issue to Ethics Committee.
MRPS leader, Manda Krishna Madiga said people are seeing suppression in Telangana and Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao was behaving like a dictator. He linked the suspension of senior leaders like Mr. Jana Reddy and Mr. Uttam Kumar Reddy to their experience in analysing the budget and exposing the Government in the House. Students from Osmania University came in large numbers to support the deeksha.
