YSR Congress party president and Leader of Opposition Y S Jaganmohan Reddy's crusade against Andhra Pradesh chief minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu for giving cabinet berths to four of his party MLAs who defected to the TDP seems to be getting wider support from unexpected quarters, particularly the Bharatiya Janata Party.
If it was Naidu’s close friend and Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu who found fault with the defectors getting cabinet berth on Monday, it was his party colleague and former union minister Daggubati Purandeshwari who dashed off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi opposing Naidu’s move to induct defectors into the cabinet.
Venkaiah Naidu said if any elected representative wants to defect to another party, he or she should first resign from the post before defection.
“It is not ethical to stick to the post even after defection,” he said.
On Tuesday, Purandeshwari wrote to the Prime Minister and also to BJP president Amit Shah, saying that the AP chief minister’s move to induct defectors would bring bad name to the BJP as well, as it was the alliance partner of the TDP in Andhra.
“Our political ally is encouraging defections unethically. Are we endorsing it?” she asked.
She even said the TDP was making a mockery of the anti-defection law and there was a need to make it more stringent.
“The AP chief minister has grossly violated the Constitutional norms,” she alleged.
Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee also supported Jagan’s argument and lashed out at Naidu for promoting defectors.
APCC chief N Raghuveera Reddy wrote a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee to intervene in the issue and see that the defectors are disqualified and sacked from Naidu cabinet.
