Naidu will not quit, ready for showdown with kcr
Naidu will hit back at KCR with the alleged illegal phone tapping of TDP ministers.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has decided not to resign even if Telangana State’s AntiCorruption Bureau (ACB) serves him notices under Section 160 of the PCR to appear before them in the cash-for-vote scam.
Naidu indicated his strategy in a six-hour long Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. He is learnt to have said that: “There is no question of me stepping down and appointing someone in my place. These are all rumours spread by our opponents. I am not going to take the no- tices served by the Telangana ACB as they had no jurisdiction over me and I am ready to face the situation come what may”. In the last three weeks, Naidu held six Cabinet meetings on this issue.
Naidu appeared tense and agitated over the future moves of Telangana ACB to implicate him in the scam. He spent a lot of time with a battery of criminal and constitutional lawyers for the last few days and made up his mind to fight the case, legally and constitutionally. A retired bureaucrat with legal expertise, who is assisting the AP CM, told this paper that it was not easy to get Naidu in this case.
First Naidu will resist receiving notices which are expected to be served to him after obtaining the nod from the special court hearing the case. Next, Naidu has decided to utilize the alleged illegal tapping of mobile phones of around 110 important TDP ministers, MPs and MLAs including him to hit back at Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR).
“(Naidu) has enough evidence to nail KCR in the tapping scam. We have urged him to take action against KCR, if there is evidence. Very soon, our police will register a case against KCR and issue notices to him to appear before them,” a senior minister told this paper.
If the law of the land ordains Naidu to accept the notices is- sued by the Telangana police, so is KCR obliged to accept the notices issued by Andhra police, is the logic the minister put forth. If necessary, the AP police too will obtain the permission of a trial court located in Andhra to go after KCR. The minister, however, was not sure whether a court outside Telangana has jurisdiction over the Telangana CM. To build a case against KCR alleging that he had authorized illegal phones tapping of the AP the CM, ministers and other leaders, TDP leaders have filed dozens of cases in different police stations in Andhra since 7 June when Naidu’s alleged phone tapes were leaked to the media. AP Irrigation Minister Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao was among those who filed 86 cases against KCR.
The AP Cabinet clubbed all these complaints and handed them over to a special investigation team (SIT) to frame charges against KCR. SIT head DIG Mohammad Iqbal said that he would begin the probe as early as possible and act as per the law. “There are different angles and different charges, I just took charge,” he said.
AP police in Vijayawada also booked a case against KCR based on a complaint filed by a bishop, Mathaiah Jerusalem, who initially acted as a mediator between Stephenson and TDP leaders, that there was a threat to his life from the Telangana CM. Sources said that the SIT would also take over this complaint and prepare notices for KCR.
The Telangana ACB sent Naidu’s audio tapes for forensic examination in Hyderabad last week. Sources in the ACB said that they would present the report , which is expected in the next few days, before the court and seek permission to issue notices to Naidu.
However, Telangana ACB officials dismissed Naidu’s plans as “untenable”. “So far, there is no case against KCR, while we have solid evidence in the cash-for-vote scam and have already commenced investigation,” a top ACB official told this paper. The veiled attacks on E.S.L. Narasimhan, Governor of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, by AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and his party for not bailing them out in the cash-forvote scam is likely to widen the gap between Naidu and the Central government.
Naidu led the tirade against Narasimhan, saying that he had failed to invoke Section 8 of the AP State Reorganization Act on a number of occasions. If the Governor had acted in time and taken control of the police force in Hyderabad city, things would not have reached this point, and the phone-tapping would not have happened.
The issue figured prominently at the marathon meeting of the AP Cabinet on Wednesday, as the Chief Minister described how the Governor had been lenient with Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) on a host of issues over the past year. Naidu felt that the Governor should have reined in the Telangana ACB, which he accuses of tapping his phone in the cash-for-vote scam.
Andhra Pradesh Labour Minister K. Atchen Naidu said that the present crisis between the two states was triggered by the “inaction of the Governor, who is supposed to protect the interests of both states”.
Sources in Hyderabad Raj Bhawan told The Sunday Guardian that Narasimhan has complained to the Centre that he was being targeted by the TDP leadership for not intervening in the cash-for-vote scam. The scam involves Telangana MLA Revanth Reddy of TDP, who was arrested for allegedly bribing nominated Anglo-Indian MLA Elvis Stephenson. Union Home Secretary L.C. Goyal has conveyed the Centre’s unhappiness over the attacks on the Governor to AP Chief Secretary I.Y.R. Krishna Rao during a meeting in Delhi on Thursday. Naidu later issued a press release asking his party leadership not to criticise the Governor.
Even after receiving the gag order, AP Social Welfare Minister Ravela Kishore Babu criticised Narasimhan: “Whenever we meet him, he ridicules us. Still, we have nothing against him personally.” Narasimhan was particularly hurt by Naidu’s refusal to meet him after his Delhi visit on 12 and 13 June. The Governor was instructed by PM Narendra Modi to talk to both Naidu and KCR, together or separately, to sort out all differences. The Governor sent word to both CMs on Saturday for a meeting. However, Naidu refused, insisting that he would communicate only with the Governor’s advisers.