Hyderabad, August 29: Monday will be a crucial day in the political history of Andhra Pradesh. Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar is likely to announce his decision on three important matters, of which, two decisions could have an impact on state politics.
The Speaker is likely to given his decision the fresh resignations submitted by suspended TDP leader Nagam Janardhan Reddy and three other TDP MLAs. They have resigned demanding in protest against the Centre’s failure to announce statehood for Telangana. It was on July 3 that Nagam gave resignation for the first time. But his resignation along with others was rejected by the Speaker on the grounds that they were submitted by ’emotionally surcharged’ MLAs. However, later Nagam and his team submitted the resignation letters, this time in the prescribed format.
The Speaker has already completed the process of scrutiny and other verification with Nagam and his team and is most likely to announce his decision on Monday. If the Speaker accepts Nagam’s resignation, then it would lead to another round of resignations by the Telangana MLAs.
The process of acceptance or rejection of resignations submitted by 29 pro-Jagan MLAs is also likely to move forward on Monday. As many as 26 Congress MLAs, two TDP and one PRP MLA has resigned in protest against the inclusion of former Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s name in the CBI’s FIR in Jagan’s disproportionate assets case. Of them, three pro-Jagan MLAs – Konda Surekha, K Jayasudha and K Satyavathi had earlier resigned demanding statehood for Telangana. The Speaker N Manohar on Saturday had directed the Assembly Secretary to verify the signatures of the 26 MLAs who had resigned. Meanwhile, the Government Whip Kondru Muralimohan had asked the Speaker to accept their resignations and all 26 rebel MLAs’ resignations from Congress party’s prime membership.
Analysts say that the Government Whip’s clarification might facilitate the Speaker to accept the resignation based on the rules and regulations. Once accepted, these 26 assembly constituencies would go for the by-polls. Due to the merger of Praja Rajyam Party and outside support extended by the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, the Kiran Kumar Reddy Government will continue to enjoy majority in the House by having the magic figure of 148 MLAs. Further, the acceptance of resignation would reduce the magic figure to 123 and therefore, it would be easier for Kiran Kumar Reddy to sail through the current crisis.
The Speaker is also likely to decide the fate of MLA N Prassanakumar Reddy who defected to Congress in 2009 itself after getting elected on the TDP ticket. Presently, he is support the YSR Congress party president Jagan Mohan Reddy.
In view of these developments, it might be predicted that Monday would prove to be a crucial for Telangana, Jagan Mohan Reddy and also the Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy with the epicentre of these political activities being the state legislative assembly. Now all eyes would be set on N Manohar who would be taking probably the toughest decisions that any Speaker has ever taken.
——Agencies