Congress candidate for MLC elections under MLAs quota and TPCC treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy has accused Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao of openly violating the Anti-Defection Law and displaying utter disrespect to the Constitution, and said all he would get is curses from people for his anti-democratic practices.
Speaking to reporters here, he alleged that Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao wants to grab power violating all norms and even at the cost of murdering democracy. He said it was immoral for the TRS to field an additional candidate when it doesn’t have the required strength and encouraging defection of two Congress MLAs and a TDP MLA to win the fifth seat.
“Congress party has 19 MLAs while its pre-poll ally TDP has two legislators. A day before the declaration of results on December 11, an all party delegation had met Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan and submitted a memorandum asking him to treat all the parties in Grand Alliance as a single entity. Therefore, technically and ethically, the Congress strength should be of 21 MLAs,” he said. “In his first term, Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao had ‘purchased’ 25 MLAs and over a dozen MLCs from other parties. In this term too, he ‘purchased’ four MLCs to deprive the Congress of the status of main Opposition. This is not a healthy practice in a democracy as it does not sync with the will of the people,” he said.
Former MP and TPCC Campaign Committee chairperson Vijayashanti lashed out has criticised Mr. Chandrashekar Rao for openly encouraging defections from the Congress. In a statement here, she said TRS had made it a habit of encouraging defections with Operation Akarsh and it was time people fight against such undemocratic practices and oppose it openly. She found fault with Legislative Council Chairman for taking action against TRS MLCs who joined Congress but ignoring those who won with Congress party support and joined TRS.
She demanded that the Assembly Speaker ensure the defected MLAs votes were not recognised in the MLC polls. “We hope the Speaker functions as per the Law and take action against the defected Congress MLAs. This is the demand of people,” she said. If justice is denied the Congress party should get itself ready for an agitation and not confine to just protests.