Andhra Pradesh municipal administration minister K Narayana might be new to politics, but being a responsible minister, he should be aware of the repercussions of the violation of model code of conduct of the Election Commission. If he does not, at least officials should alert him.
On Monday, Narayana came to Ongole along with two other ministers Ravela Kishore Babu and Sidda Raghava Rao, to attend a party meeting to review the preparations for the ensuing MLC elections under local bodies’ quota. Because of the elections, the code of conduct is in force in the district. When code is in force, the ministers should not attend or review official meetings at all.
But Narayana went to Ongole Municipality and started a meeting with state level housing officials in the Commissioner’s chamber, for about half an hour. Municipal Commission Venkata Krishna was aware of the poll code, but he did not alert he minister. He simply walked out of the meeting while the minister reviewed the departmental works.
Before going out, the minister has summoned commissioner and municipal engineer Srinivasa Rao inside the chamber and had reportedly enquired them about drinking water situation in the city. When the commissioner tried to alert him that media was waiting outside, the minister simply said “I am not conducting a review meeting with you” and left out.
He reportedly left the municipal office only after receiving phone calls from ruling party MLAs cautioning him that he would be landed in some problem.
