Hyderabad, November 23: With barely hours left for polling to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), chief minister K Rosaiah said he would step down from power if the TDP won a single seat more than the Congress in the elections.
Reacting to allegations made by TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu that he was protecting the interests of the mining lobby in the state, Rosaiah rejected Naidu’s demand for his resignation. Naidu had alleged that Rosaiah was shielding irregularities by Karnataka minister G Janardhan Reddy’s mining firm Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC).
Taking strong objection to Naidu’s accusations at a press conference on Sunday, Rosaiah said, “No person with a sound mind will ever speak about me like that and make wild allegations. No one is shielding anyone. It reflects Naidu’s poor state of mind.”
Rosaiah said Naidu was yet to come to terms with the rout of his party in the recent general elections and was resorting to such unfair means with the intention of misleading the public in the GHMC elections. He seems to be disturbed and wants to come to power at any cost. But, he will have to wait as people have already given a clear verdict in favour of the Congress party, the chief minister said.
The chief minister said his government would abide by any verdict of the apex court on the mining issue. “I have seen media reports about the Central Empowered Committee’s observations on the mining issue. We will act if the Supreme Court gives any directions,” he said and added “Even before the committee could submit its report, we realised that the issue had inter-state ramifications and hence requested the Centre to order a CBI inquiry. We are awaiting a word from the Union home minister.”
Rosaiah said the CBI inquiry would go to the root of the problem and pointed out that mining lease to OMC was issued during Naidu’s rule.
Rosaiah challenged Naidu for a debate on allegations of corruption during the latter’s nine-year tenure. “The TDP chief was never willing to face any kind of probe when allegations of corruption were made against him. He always ran away. Did he ever come forward to face an investigation?” he asked.
“On the contrary, I will go to the people and seek a punishment for myself if Naidu can prove allegations of corruption against me,” he said.
-PTI