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Courting yet another controversy in a highly polarised political atmosphere, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy stripped D Sridhar Babu, who hails from Telangana, of his legislative affairs portfolio and allocated the same to another cabinet colleague from the Seemandhra region. The move comes just when the state Assembly is being reconvened to debate the draft AP Reorganisation Bill, 2013 from January 3.
The chief minister allocated the much sought-after commercial taxes subject to Sridhar while relieving him from the responsibilities of legislative affairs late last night. However, Telangana leaders were not convinced even after the chief minister clarified that the rejig was done only to entrust commercial taxes portfolio to Sridhar in the light of dwindling revenue.
The commercial taxes portfolio was held by the chief minister himself for the last three years and the argument goes that the revenue collection wings generally perform better when they are directly supervised by the chief minister. According to his own admission, the revenue growth has been on the decline in the state from 26 per cent in his first year in office to 15 per cent last year and 9 per cent during the current financial year.
Though considered as one of the close aides of the chief minister, the soft spoken minister, however, had disagreed with the chief minister a couple of times after the Assembly session started debate on the crucial bifurcation Bill on December 12. While the minister insisted that the debate on the Bill had already been initiated, the chief minister said the Bill was merely tabled in the House.
A group of ministers from Telangana, who petitioned governor ESL Narasimhan earlier in the day against the portfolio rejig, termed Kiran Reddy’s act as nothing but aimed at seeking “sadistic pleasure”. Further denting the authority of the chief minister, the aggrieved minister refused to accept the new portfolio stating the council of ministers had people more suitable to handle subjects like commercial taxes than him.
A bandh was called in Sridhar's home district of Karimnagar on Wednesday in protest against the chief minister's decision. In Delhi, Union Minister S Jaipal Reddy, who hails from the Telangana region, termed the chief minister’s action as a part of a conspiracy to hijack the passage of AP Reorganisation Bill, 2013.
Meanwhile, the chief minister also reportedly said no one had the right to question his prerogative in terms of portfolio allocations besides claiming that many people from the Telangana region were sending messages with a request to keep the state united, an assertion that is expected to cause further discomfort to the Telangana leaders within the Congress party.
While leaders like Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao, maintained that a mere switching of the legislative affairs portfolio would make no difference to the final outcome, which is the passage of the Bill in Parliament, a section of people within the Congress party sees a motive behind this.
The chief minister has allocated the legislative affairs portfolio to education minister Sake Shailajanath, who is the convenor of 'United Andhra Pradesh Joint Action Committee. This has further created doubts among the Telangana leaders. Further, Shailajanath is also considered to be loyal to the chief minister.
These, along with the idea of moving a resolution against the state bifurcation, are among the things through which Kiran Reddy is hoping to derive the mileage of being the champion of United Andhra cause as he seeks to find his own place in the future politics of Seemandhra post bifurcation, according to political observers.
When reporters asked whether he was planning to float a new political party if the UPA government went ahead with the bifurcation, Kiran Reddy said his first priority till January 23 was to get the Bill debated in the state Assembly. He neither denied nor endorsed the rumours of a new political party.
