Fearing possible fall-out if Roads & Buildings Minister Dharmana Prasada Rao’s resignation was accepted, several ministers held confabulations among themselves on Monday night, besides trooping to the Chief Minister’s camp office on Tuesday to attend the mini-cabinet convened by Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy.
In an attempt to elicit views of his cabinet colleagues on Dharmana’s resignation, the Chief Minister convened an impromptu meeting on Tuesday morning. He apparently decided to invite them in the wake of some ministers opposing acceptance of the resignation of Dharmana Prasada Rao, who was charged in the fourth charge-sheet filed by the CBI in the Kadapa MP, Y S Jaganmohan Reddy’s ‘disproportionate assets’ (DA) case.
At the meeting, majority of the ministers, arming themselves with Article 16 of the Constitution apparently tried to impress upon the Chief Minister that none, including the premier investigating agency CBI, had any right to question the decisions taken by the Cabinet. They also cited past Supreme Court directives. Nearly 16 to 18 ministers attended the meeting.
In a bid to mount pressure on the Chief Minister, some of the ministers, in fact, held a separate meeting on Tuesday night. They include Danam Nagender, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Pithani, Vatti Vasanth Kumar and Maheedhar Reddy. All of them strongly felt that under Art 163 of the Constitution, none has any right to question the decisions of Cabinet leave alone investigating agency like the CBI.
Investigating into Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy’s ‘disproportionate assets’ (DA) case, the CBI has named Dharmana Prasada Rao as fifth accused in their fourth charge-sheet submitted to the CBI special court last week. Obviously perturbed by his name being figured in the charge-sheet, Dharmana Prasada Rao, submitted his resignation to the Chief Minister on moral grounds. However, the Chief Minister chose not to take any decision either way sensing trouble ahead as well as stiff resistance to reject it by some of his own cabinet colleagues.
Already, PCC Chief Botcha Satyanarayana, is in Delhi to apprise the party leadership of the prevailing political situation in the State following the resignation of Dharmana Prasada Rao.
The Chief Minister, who had given a patient hearing to those opposed to accepting Dharmana’s resignation, apparently decided to leave the final decision to the party high command. He is likely to leave for Delhi to join the PCC chief and discuss the issue with the party leadership.
Speaking to mediapersons later, Minister Anam Ramnarayana Reddy made it clear that the ministers, who met the Chief Minister, empowered him to take a call on Dharmana’s resignation after holding consultations with legal luminaries and party high priests. He also ridiculed the claim of YSRCP Working president Vijayamma of allotting 100 seats to the Backward Classes in the 2014 elections.
–Agencies