Congress unsure of by-poll prospectus

Hyderabad: Apprehending loss of face if the party loses all seats in the by-elections, the ruling Congress is moving cautiously as far as cancelling the membership of 16 Congress MLAs, who have defied the party whip and voted against the State government in the no confidence motion early this month.

The party is reportedly under the impression that action should be taken against these MLAs only after the Election Commission of India issues notification for conducting elections to the seven vacant Assembly seats- Adilabad, Kamareddy, Ghanpur (Station), Mahbubnagar, Kollapur, Nagarkurnool and Kovur.

'By doing so, the elections to all these seats will be held in two phases and the party will have some breathing time to fine tune the strategy for the second round of elections.

It will also give time for the party to strengthen its base in these 16 constituencies and to weaken the grip of the MLAs in YSR Congress,' party sources said.

However, the big question that is doing rounds in the party circles is that whether the Speaker would take action against all the 16 MLAs in one go to facilitate the ECI to announce poll schedule for all seats or would delay the decision till the notification is issued for seven vacant seats.

'There is no time limit for the Speaker to take the decision as former Speaker Y Ramakrishnudu received petitions from MLAs loyal to former Chief Minister NT Rama Rao and also his successor N Chandrababu Naidu seeking the disqualification of the members in other groups. However, before he could take a decision, the term of the Assembly expired,' sources said.

The second instance where a political party sought disqualification of its members was in 2008 when the TRS petitioned to the then Speaker KR Suresh Reddy to cancel the membership of nine of its MLAs.

The complaint against them was that they have proposed the name of a candidate in deference to the party's decision during the election of Legislative Council.

Though it was an action which took place outside the House, the Speaker took eight months to disqualify seven MLAs while two others resigned before the decision was announced.

'Since the Speaker has discretionary powers, no one can question him for taking time and no one can go to court seeking to expedite the process,' the sources said.

The erstwhile Praja Rajyam Party MLA B Shoba Nagi Reddy, who met the Speaker on Monday morning, sought one week's time to present her case which was agreed upon by the latter. She would present her case along with a lawyer.

The MLA has registered a complaint with the Election Commission about her party's merger with the Congress and declared that she would continue as an independent member in the House.

'The PRP has no right to issue whip when it has merged with another party,' she told the reporters after meeting the Speaker. At the same time, she said that she had done so knowing the consequences and she was ready to face elections again.

Sources said that, as far as the Assembly is concerned, it was notified of the merger till the no confidence was taken up and hence, technically she is liable for losing membership.