Is Botcha precipitating a crisis for Kiran?

Hyderabad: Is the PCC chief engineering a political crisis rather prematurely for the Kiran Kumar Reddy government?

He was obviously making moves with an agenda of his own on the desertions that pose real threat to the Congress government. He stated categorically that the party would go tough with the party MLAs whose resignations are pending with the Speaker. No love has been lost for them in the party.

At a time when the Speaker's office is waiting for formalities to be duly complied with for acting on the resignation letters of half a dozen MLAs lying on his table, the PCC chief Botcha Satynarayana sought to precipitate the process by initiating measures for their expulsion from the party.

He preferred to target those who opted to go with Kadapa MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy by expressing their solidarity with the family of the late chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy.

In all, six Congress MLAs had submitted their resignation to the speaker. Five of them ' Perni Nani (Machilipatnam), Alla Nani (Eluru), V Sujai Krishna Ranga Rao (Bobbili), Maddala Rajesh Kumar (Chintalpudi) and Dwarampudi Chandrasekhar Reddy (Kakinada) ' are already part of the YSRCP fold pending the acceptance of their resignations.

Three more MLAs ' two from Prakasam - Gottipati Ravi and Siva Prasada Reddy and one from Krishna district ' Jogi Ramesh are expected to follow the suit. The latter had made no secret of his disenchantment with the party.

Punganur MLA Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy also submitted his resignation to the Speaker, but he declared that he preferred to remain with the Congress party.

Botcha enjoyed better political equations with him, thanks to his disillusionment with the Chief Minister. Hence he is likely to be spared.

If the PCC was firm on expelling all the five who had already joined the YSRCP and three others toying with the idea of going with Jagan, the floor strength of the Congress party will fall short of the magical figure of 148.

On record Congress has a strength of 156 including an associated member K Srisailam Goud. Though Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy dared the TRS and other opposition parties to topple his government, his confidence owed to the fact that the main opposition party ' TDP with a strength of 86 was not in favour of playing into the hands of the YSRCP. It may not opt for a no-trust move at this juncture.

Some of the Congress MLAs Komatireddy Venkat Reddy are firm on quitting the party if the situation warranted for the sake of Telangana.

Rest of the opposition -TRS (17 +1), YSRCP (17), MIM (7), CPI (4), BJP (3), CPM (1), Lok Satta (1) and (Nagam Janardhana Reddy) and independent coming together with the TDP for a trial of strength may prove to be disastrous for the Congress.