‘Rahul buffoon, Congress villain’

Caretaker Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday described AICC president Rahul Gandhi as the country’s “buffoon” and called the Congress the “biggest enemy and villain number one” of the state.

Soon after recommending the dissolution of the TS Assembly, Mr Rao launched a blistering attack on the Congress.

Recalling how the Congress president had hugged Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the debate on the no-confidence motion and his subsequent wink, Mr Rao said, “Everyone knows what Rahul Gandhi is... the biggest buffoon in the country. The whole country saw how he went to Mr Narendra Modi and hugged him, the way he winked. The more he comes to Telangana, the more seats we will win.” He further said, Rahul has inherited the legacy of the Congress Delhi Sultanate. Let’s not become slaves to Congress, slaves to Delhi.

Though the Assembly was dissolved on Thursday, the hearing of the Hyderabad High Court on cases with regard to expulsion of Congress legislators Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and S.A. Sampath Kumar would go on.

Legal experts say that till the date of the dissolution of the House, both the MLAs are eligible for benefits and allowances on par with other legislators as per the order of the single judge of the High Court. But as a division bench had stayed this order, the two MLAs will have to wait for their salary and allowances till the final verdict on the appeals moved by both Secretaries.

The Assembly passed the resolution on March 15 expelling both the MLAs for disrupting the House and causing injury to the Legislative Council Chairman by throwing ear phones during the Governor’s Address on March 12. Their expulsion was effective from March 12. The same day the Assembly Secretariat issued a notification notifying the Nalgonda and Alampur Assembly segments as vacant.

Mr Sarasani Satyam Reddy, senior lawyer of the Supreme Court, said that in view of the final order of the single judge dated April 17, the membership of both MLAs stood restored. In view of the suspension of the single judge’s order by a division bench on August 21, they have to wait till the final verdict in the appeals by both the secretaries.

High Court advocate N. Sreedhar Reddy explained that by virtue of the dissolution of the Assembly, both the MLAs had also lost their membership, but with regard to their salaries and other allowances for the period from March 12 they would have to wait for the final orders of the High Court.

He said if the appeals of both secretaries were dismissed by the bench, the MLAs would have the right to claim their benefits. Otherwise they would be treated as expelled members.