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MLC polls: YSRCP suspends four MLAs for cross-voting
The YSR Congress party on Friday suspended four of its MLAs in suspicion of having cross-voted for TDS party candidate Panchumarthi Anuradha in the elections to the state legislative council held on Thursday.
Hyderabad
The YSR Congress party on Friday announced suspension of four of its legislators from the party, who are suspected to have cross-voted for Telugu Desam Party candidate Panchumarthi Anuradha in the elections to the state legislative council held on Thursday.
The suspended MLAs are: Anam Ramanarayana Reddy from Venkatagiri assembly constituency, Mekapati Chandrasekhar Reddy from Udayagiri, Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy from Nellore (rural) and Undavalli Sridevi from Tadikonda constituency.
YSRCP general secretary and advisor to the state government (public affairs) Ramakrishna Reddy Sajjala told reporters that a decision to suspend the four MLAs was taken after an internal inquiry conducted by the party to identify the black sheep in the MLC elections.
“We have a mechanism to identify who had voted in favour of the TDP candidate. After making an internal inquiry, we have come to the conclusion that these four MLAs had voted for the TDP and party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy ordered their suspension from the party,” Sajjala said.
Anuradha, who was fielded by the TDP in the MLC elections under MLAs’ quota, won the seat by securing 23 first preferential votes, though the party has an effective strength of only 19 MLAs in the assembly, indicating that four YSRCP members had cross-voted in her favour.
Sajjala said the suspended MLAs might have got an assurance from TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu on the party tickets in the next year’s assembly elections. “We also believe that each of them might have been paid ₹15-20 crore from Naidu for indulging in cross voting,” he alleged.
The YSRC general secretary said the party had fielded candidates for all the seven seats only with a confidence that it had enough numbers to win them. “But Naidu has lured four of our party MLAs. We shall make an introspection as to where we have gone wrong and take corrective measures,” he said.
While it was no surprise for the YSRCP that two of the four suspended MLAs – Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy and Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, who had already revolted against the party -- would vote for the TDP, the cross-voting from the other two MLAs – Chandrasekhar Reddy and Sridevi -- took the party by surprise.
However, both the suspended MLAs refuted the charges that they had cross-voted in favour of the TDP candidate. “The party had asked me to vote for the official candidate Jayamangala Venkataramana and I voted for him. Somebody has given a wrong information to the party leadership that I had cross-voted,” Chandrasekhar Reddy said.
The Udayagiri MLA, however, alleged that the high command was encouraging groups within the party in his constituency. “The top bosses are playing divide-and-rule politics. The government has not been releasing funds for the development of my constituency and the party is least bothered about the developmental works,” he said, adding that almost all the MLAs of the YSRC were facing a similar situation in their respective constituencies.
Sridevi also clarified to the reporters that she had not resorted to any crossvoting. “I have been loyal to the YSRC and Jagan and I cast my vote as per the code given to me,” she said.
She said she had met the chief minister hours before the polling in the MLC elections and got a strong assurance from him about her future. “I always practised value-based politics. I am being targeted by some sections only because I am a Dalit woman,” she said.
