Published Dec 19, 2022 | 6:29 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 19, 2022 | 6:30 PM
Telangana Labour Minister Ch Malla Reddy. (Supplied)
For the first time, MLAs from the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana came together against the minister from their district and sent a request to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao to take note of the alleged injustice being done to cadres in their respective constituencies.
The five BRS MLAs who protested are Mynampalli Hanumantha Rao (Malkajgiri), Bethi Subhash Reddy (Uppal), Madhavaram Krishna Rao (Kukatpalli), Arikepudi Gandhi (Serilingampalli), and KP Vivekananda (Kutbullapur).
Their dissent came after a meeting on Monday. They met at the residence of Hanumantha Rao at Dulapally.
The five MLAs expressed displeasure over Labour Minister Ch Malla Reddy, who represents Medchal-Malkajgiri district in the Cabinet, giving all the nominated posts to his loyalists, leaving nothing for the other lawmakers.
What came as a surprise was that they chose to communicate with the party president and working president through the media.
As the BRS is generally known for discipline, the MLAs voicing their resentment against their minister caught many off guard.
Malla Reddy is already under the scanner of income-tax sleuths, who carried out raids late last month and seized documents from properties belonging to him.
Said Hanumantha Rao: “Malla Reddy should realise that he is a minister representing the entire district and not just his Medchal constituency. If he takes away all positions in the constituency for his own cadres, what about us? We have to face our cadres.”
He added: “We are accountable and we owe our existence to our cadres and to the party.”
Hanumantha Rao also recalled the promises the BRS made to its workers who could not get tickets in the GHMC elections — that they would be rewarded in due course. “Now we do not have any answers for them,” he said.
The legislators said that though the chief minister always told the minister to take the MLAs in his district into confidence before recommending the names of party workers for nominated posts, that was not happening.
Hanumantha Rao said: “We have told the minister that decisions pertaining to the district should be taken collectively and that our decisions could be brought to the notice of the chief minister and the party working president only after we come to a consensus. But the minister never consults us.”
The MLAs said that they were surprised to see the appointments being made to posts of the library committee and the market committee chairpersons without their knowledge.
“We did not even know that a decision was taken to fill those posts until we saw the GOs,” Krishna Rao said.
The MLAs said that the minister should keep in mind that the district comprises many constituencies, and hence should be viewed in its totality.
The minister should act in a way that all the constituencies get equal justice, they said, adding that the district does not comprise the minister’s Medchal constituency alone.
