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MLA stripped off party post amid discontent in YSRCP
On Tuesday, senior YSRCP lawmaker from Nellore district Anam Ramanarayana Reddy was stripped of the post of party in-charge for his Venkatagiri assembly constituency for making critical comments against the chief minister
Hyderabad
Discontent is brewing in the ruling YSR Congress party in Andhra Pradesh, as at least three legislators raised their voice against the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government in the last few days.
On Tuesday, senior YSRCP lawmaker from Nellore district Anam Ramanarayana Reddy was stripped of the post of party in-charge for his Venkatagiri assembly constituency for making critical comments against the chief minister.
Reddy, who had been a five-time MLA and served as a minister in the cabinets of N T Rama Rao, Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, N Kiran Kumar Reddy and N Chandrababu Naidu, had been raising his voice against the style of functioning of the Jagan Mohan Reddy government for the last few months.
On Tuesday, too, Reddy commented at a meeting in Venkatagiri that if Jagan goes in for early elections to the state, the YSRCP would definitely lose power. He said there had been virtually no development in his constituency for the last three and half years of the YSRCP rule.
“There have been no buildings even for village secretariats. The developmental works came to a halt, as the government not been paying bills to the contractors. How can we expect to win the next elections only by distributing pensions to the old people?” he asked.
Within hours of making these comments, Jagan removed Reddy from the post of YSRCP in-charge of Venkatagiri assembly constituency indicating that he won’t be given the party ticket in the next elections. A party leader familiar with the development said instructions were issued to district officials not to entertain the sitting MLA in any official programmes.
In place of Reddy, the chief minister appointed Nedurumalli Ramnarayana Reddy, son of former chief minister N Janardhan Reddy, as the constituency in-charge.
Earlier, another senior MLA of the YSRCP from Nellore (rural) constituency Sridhar Reddy Kotamreddy also made strong comments against the government, particularly targeting the officials for not taking up developmental works in the constituency.
Kotamreddy, who has been sulking ever since he was denied the cabinet berth during the expansion in April last year, shot into headlines in July last year by squatting in a sewerage canal in his constituency protesting against the officials for not resolving the drainage issues.
A few days ago, the MLA openly expressed his displeasure at the government for its apathy in addressing the issues concerning the people, such as construction of houses for weaker sections, and threatened to take up an agitation if the problems were not resolved.
On Monday, Jagan summoned Kotamreddy to his camp office and sought an explanation from him for his anti-government comments. “He was warned of disciplinary action if he did not stop criticising the government,” the party leader quoted above said.
Another lawmaker from Mylavaram assembly constituency Vasantha Krishna Prasad, too, found fault with the Jagan government for targeting Vuyyuru Srinivas, a non-resident Indian (NRI), in connection with the Guntur stampede incident on January 1, which led to the death of three persons.
Srinivas, who organised the event to distribute clothes and gifts to the poor people on behalf of Vuyyuru Foundation, was arrested by the police, who held him responsible for the stampede. He was later released on bail.
Krishna Prasad said Srinivas had been doing a lot of service to the homeland. “The arrest of the NRI would send wrong signals to the other NRIs who have been spending money on service and developmental activities in their homeland,” the MLA said.
He said that the actions of the government would scare the NRIs to come back to the state and spend their money on service activities.
Earlier, Krishna Prasad’s father and former minister Vasantha Nageswara Rao, too, found fault with the Jagan government for refusing to develop Amaravati as the state capital. He blamed the government for doing injustice to the farmers of Amaravati who gave their lands for the capital.
