For quite some time, the YSR Congress party has been attacking Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu for engineering defection of as many as 22 of its MLAs into the TDP and even giving four them cabinet berths.
Many times, YSRC party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy demanded the resignation of the defected MLAs and challenged them to face the by-elections again. However, there was no response from any of them. The TDP president, too, remained unmoved to the demand.
On Tuesday, one of the defected MLAs and presently a minister in chandrababu Naidu cabinet Adinarayana Reddy made a sensational statement.
“We resigned from our MLAs posts on the same day of defecting to the TDP. But the resignation letters are pending with the Speaker. It is his discretion whether to accept them or not. How can we force them to accept the resignations?” he asked.
Adinarayana Reddy further said he was prepared to face the by-elections if his resignation was accepted and was confident that he would win the seat again.
The minister’s statement will definitely land Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao in an embarrassing situation.
The Speaker never said he had received the resignations of the defected YSRC MLAs. If they had really resigned, one wonders why Kodela had not acted on them – either rejecting or accepting.
Now, the onus lies on the Speaker to prove his sincerity by taking a decision on the resignation letters.
