'TAINTED MINISTERS' STAY UNTIL 'DEFIANT MLAs' QUIT

By M H Ahssan / Hyderabad

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy returned from New Delhi after four-day excruciating visit. Hectic parleys — twice with Congress president, five times with Ghulam Nabi Azad, and once with many others who matter and who don’t. He was accompanied by APCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana for some meetings. He returned a day earlier.
Media began speculating that the Congress high command wanted all the tainted ministers to be thrown out of the Cabinet and that the Chief Minister stuck to his guns saying that they did not commit any mistake. If at least two ministers — Sabitha Indra Reddy and Dharmana Prasada Rao — were shown the door too, they would be given an impression that the Chief Minister was against their exit, but the high command insisted on they taking a “forced sabbatical” in view of the semi-clean image the Congress is trying.

The the other ministers too would come under the radar once they are officially named in the yet-to-be-filed charge-sheets in the Jagan’s assets cases. Until then, they are safe. While political circles are talking about the safety of the ministers, the Chief Minister is surely worried about his own safety, given the dwindled numbers of the ruling party in the Assembly.
Unless the Speaker takes a call on the disqualification of MLAs who switched sides and moved towards the YSR Congress, the magic figure would not change in the Assembly. Unless that changes, the Chief Minister would not be in a position  to dislodge a few of his colleagues and displease a few others through a Cabinet rejig.

If the MLAs are disqualified this month, the Election Commission would conduct elections to such constituencies that fall vacant due to the disqualification. This becomes detrimental to the interests of the Congress. Therefore, the Chief Minister might wait until such time that the MLAs are disqualified, before showing the door to the ministers.

He secured clearance for filling the nominated posts. So what? It really doesn’t matter. For, the posts wouldn’t really benefit those who would be adorned with them as this is the election year. The positions would be ornamental for a variety of reasons: Those appointed to officiate as chairmen of the commissions and State bodies would not be in a position to take any financial decisions; The party would have to accommodate some of those who could not be elevated to the nominated positions; The ministers may not jell with the new chairmen; and the Chief Minister would have to devote more time to address these issues.

Given the regional equations, how would the Congress manage the possible outbreak of dissidence which would reach epidemic proportions in an elections year becomes interesting.

Once the MLAs are disqualified, the TDP might go ahead with its much-touted no-confidence motion. For, in the absence of the impudent MLAs, the Government may sail through the no-trust move and the TDP would have fulfilled its obligation by all means.

That the main opposition too would find it hard to play up any issue to discredit the Government. If this happens, Kiran’s Delhi visit could be compared to the meeting of the vice-principal with the principal of a school for drafting a new time-table. If the nominated posts are not filled and no concrete outcome emerges in the days to come, this could be compared to Jaspal Bhatti’s spoof on meetings — a meeting decides to hold another meeting on when to hold the next meeting.