WARANGAL: Women & Child Welfare Minister Konda Surekha threatened to resign from the Cabinet if Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy was not made the Chief Minister by Congress party high command.
Speaking to reporters here on Monday, Ms Surekha said K. Rosaiah was an interim Chief Minister as also all Cabinet Ministers. “The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) should formally elect a leader who would be the Chief Minister. Until then, all the arrangements are deemed to be temporary,” she said.
She said that several Ministers like her had owed their present positions to Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy and they continued to owe allegiance to him and his son Jagan. They all expected Mr. Jagan to succeed his father as people in the State had confidence in his leadership.
“My husband Konda Muralidhar Rao was made MLC and I was made Cabinet Minister by YSR. But for him, we are nothing. Hence, we are in support of his son Mr. Jagan. I have decided to quit the Ministry if Mr. Jagan is not made Chief Minister,” she said categorically.
Though she refused to name them, she said there were others in the Cabinet who nursed similar feelings.
Irked at the statements being made by senior Congress leader V. Hanumantha Rao and K. Keshava Rao, she said they should go to the people to know the popularity and faith enjoyed by Mr. Jagan. She opined that it was the seniors within the Congress who were trying to create confusion and hatching plans against Mr. Jagan.
Ms. Surekha urged the party high command to spell out its stand over the issue at the earliest to avoid further confusion and trouble within the party.Ministers gheraoed
Kadapa Special Correspondent adds: Peeved over the delay in making Mr. Jagan Chief Minister, Congress functionaries detained the convoy of Union Minister of State for Steel A. Sai Prathap at Rajampet and ghaeraoed Minister for Minority Welfare Mohd. Ahmedullah in Kadapa on Sunday. They demanded that they quit their posts.
They closed the gates of National Academy of Construction centre at Rajampet, after Mr. Sai Prathap inaugurated it and raised slogans. They also mobbed Congress MLA of Rajampet Akepati Amarnath Reddy. The police intervened to open the gate and escorted the Union Minister and legislator out of the centre.
Separately, district Seva Dal chairman B. Nityananda Reddy and others gheraoed Mr. Ahmedullah at the Collectorate and once again at the State guest house here. Demanding that Mr. Ahmedullah resign from the Cabinet, they warned that they would stage protests outside legislators’ residences too.
Mr. Ahmedullah asserted that he was a loyalist of YSR and would not hesitate to do anything Mr. Jagan ordered. The Seva Dal activists questioned why he did not condemn the remarks of Jagan’s detractors. Congress district vice-president P. Sunil Kumar, SC Cell leader D. Srinivasulu and others participated. Rail roko
Later, Congressmen staged a rail roko agitation by stopping Dadar Express at Kadapa railway station. The police took them into custody after attempts to pacify them proved futile. Congress leader Naru Madhava Reddy asserted that Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy should succeed YSR and agitations would be continued until their demand was conceded.
Mr. Nityananda Reddy and about 1,000 Seva Dal members in Kadapa district announced resignation from their posts. Vontimitta mandal unit Congress president H. Subbarami Reddy also sent in his resignation to the State PCC chief.
Congress MLA of Jammalamadugu C. Adinarayana Reddy gave a four-day ultimatum for convening the Congress Legislature Party meeting, failing which he would resign to his membership in the Assembly.
Taking a dig at the Chief Minister , Mr. Adinarayana Reddy said, Mr. Rosaiah was yet to take up ‘Rachchabanda’ and other programmes conceived by YSR and was merely going round temples in the State. Mr. Rosaiah should give a public assurance to continue YSR’s welfare schemes and strive to achieve his goals, he said at a news conference at Jammalamadugu.
Claiming that about 630 persons lost their lives after YSR’s demise, he wondered whether Mr. Rosaiah was concerned about assisting the bereaved families. He flayed senior Congress leaders for ‘unabashedly’ airing irrational statements and trying to misguide the party high command.
