Botsa has Kiran caught on wrong foot

Hyderabad: In what appears to be a calculated move to embarrass chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, who was about to board a flight to Delhi on Wednesday night to discuss cabinet expansion with the party high command, information trickles out of Congress circles in bits and pieces that PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana is seeking a CBI probe into the business operations of liquor syndicates.

The intention is understood to be aimed at unsettling Kiran Kumar Redy who wanted to persuade the party high command to allow him to ease out Satyanarayana from the cabinet on the pretext that that he is holding two posts. The PCC chief is also the transport minister.

By seeking a CBI probe, the PCC president is daring the chief minister to do his bidding if his intentions of ordering ACB probe are not to stem the rot in liquor trade but only to keep on leash leaders like him who are not toeing his line.

Though Satyanarayana claims to have given the letter to the chief minister December 26, what had transpired between them came to light only when the chief minister was leaving for the nation's capital, which is considered too much of a coincidence.

Satyanarayana, in his letter to the chief minister, a copy of which was sent to the party high command, brought to his notice that there were rumours that the ACB raids were conducted at his (Kiran's) behest though he did not believe in them.

Analysts surmise that Botsa had raised the issue only to let the chief minister know that he knew why he had ordered ACB raids on liquor syndicates.

Satyanarayana worded the letter so cleverly that ordering a CBI probe or a judicial inquiry by a High Court judge into the allegations of the payoffs being made to politicians by liquor syndicates would enhance the image of the party and the government.

The PCC president is understood to have told his confidants that after he had made the representation to the chief minister, he was left with the impression that he would have to order a CBI probe or judicial inquiry. 'He responded positively,' the PCC president is quoted as having said.

The contents of the letter, according to sources, centred on how the revelations of the ACB probe had exposed the nexus among bureaucrats, police, excise, media and politicians, and dented the image of the party.

If a CBI or judicial probe is ordered, people's faith in the government's commitment to root out corruption will be restored as the probe panel will be outside the purview of the government.

Sources, however, said that writing a letter to the chief minister was a tactical move to make Kiran Kumar Reddy politically immobile - he cannot order a CBI probe since, apart from Botsa, there are several Congress leaders who are involved in the liquor trade.