Hyderabad, May 09: Making it clear that he was one of the aspirants for the Rajya Sabha seats from the state, senior Congress leader and MP V Hanumantha Rao whose term comes to an end on June 21, today hoped of getting support from the party high command and the state leaders to get him elected again to the post.
“Today, T Venkatram Reddy (another aspirant) and I met Chief Minister K Rosaiah to seek his support to get elected to the Rajya Sabha. I will seek the party high command’s support to give me another opportunity to be in Rajya Sabha. Being a Union minister, there is scope for Jairam Ramesh to have another term from the state,’’ he added.
Talking to newsmen at his residence here, Hanumantha Rao, in reply to a query, said that there is a chance of Rosaiah expanding his cabinet after completion of the Rajya Sabha polls scheduled to take place next month. The party high command may also ask the Chief Minister to go ahead with the cabinet expansion after the polls, he added. Asked about his views on Guntur MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao’s remarks demanding ACB probe against `corrupt’ ministers of the Rosaiah Government, the senior Congress member said that the remarks were intended against major industries minister K Laxminarayana, but not against other ministers of the cabinet. He further said that the ministers should cooperate with Rosaiah since the latter was continuing all the programmes launched by former chief minister late YS Rajasekhara Reddy. It was for the Chief Minister to tell whether the ministers were cooperating or not, he added.
On this occasion, Hanumantha Rao remarked that he felt bad for publication of `adverse stories’ against the Rosaiah Government in a Telugu daily owned by a Congress MP.
–Agencies