Congress objects to Talasani as Minister
Hyderabad, March 27 (INN): The Telangana Congress Legislature Party has strongly objected to the continuation of Talasani Srinivas Yadav as Commercial Taxes Minister in the State Cabinet without resigning as the MLA of Telugu Desam Party.
CLP Deputy Leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir raised the issue in the Legislative Council when Talasani rose to introduce a bill on Value Added Tax on Friday. Referring to the details of party-position in Legislative Assembly released by Speaker S Madhusudan Chary at the end of budget session on Thursday, Shabbir Ali said that the Speaker has counted Talasani and two other MLAs who defected to the TRS as members of TDP. Therefore, how could an MLA of opposition party serve as minister in the State Cabinet.
Intervening on the issue, Legislative Affairs Minister T Harish Rao said that Talasani's continuation was subjected to a decision to be taken by the Speaker. Therefore, the issue could not be raised in the Legislative Council.
Later, Shabbir Ali, along with MLCs Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy and MS Prabhakar, addressed a press conference at Council's Media Point and described Talasani's continuation as a shame for democracy. He said Talasani has been continuing as the minister in clear violation of the Anti-Defection Law. He said there was no issue if Talasani would have joined the cabinet of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao after resigning as the TDP MLA. However, he not only cheated the people by showing a fake resignation letter at the time of taking oath, but is still continuing as minister. He also expressed shock over the silence of Governor ESL Narasimhan on the issue. He said that the Governor should not have administered the oath of office and secrecy to Talasani till the acceptance of his resignation as TDP MLA.
Shabbir Ali demanded that the Governor should act immediately in view of party-position list released by the Speaker. He said Talasani's continuation would set a bad precedent for the entire country and therefore, he should be dismissed with immediate effect.
News Posted: 27 March, 2015
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