Hyderabad: The Congress high command appears to have changed its strategy in regard to “Operation cleanup AP”. According to highly placed sources, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy is unlikely to show any tearing hurry to accept the resignation of roads and buildings minister Dharmana Prasada Rao. Contrary to information that emanated from Delhi when Kiran Kumar was camping there, the central leadership is believed to have advised him that the resignation be put on hold. That the chief minister has not acted upon the resignation for two days since his return from the capital is a pointer to the new thinking of the party bosses.
The chief minister is, in fact, understood to have advised Dharmana to perform his ministerial responsibilities as usual. It is learnt that Kiran Kumar will now refer Dharmana’s issue for legal advice and it is more than possible that the government, at a later stage, may file a petition in court challenging the grounds on which he was charge-sheeted in the YS Jagan Reddy’s assets case. The government might contend that the case put forth by CBI does not warrant inclusion of his name in the charge-sheet or prosecution. The latest thinking, however, does not mean that the ministers who have come under a cloud in regard to decisions taken during the YSR regime will not be touched.
Though not out of love for Dharmana, the change of mind has been prompted by the realisation that Congress will have to take a similar step if more ministers getting sucked into the CBI investigation. This could further complicate matters for the ruling party which is already in an uncomfortable situation for a variety of reasons.
Unless Delhi is overtaken by a major development, the exercise of purging the party and the government in the state is expected to be taken up after the monsoon session of Parliament ends in the second week of September. To make things appear more than normal, it is also possible that the clean-up exercise in Andhra Pradesh might be linked to a similar programme planned for Maharashtra and Rajasthan. “A wholesale reshuffle is what the party leadership is looking at rather than dealing with individual cases which could only mess up the situation further,” a senior leader told Express.
To keep those ministers to be shown the door happy, they may be entrusted with party positions.
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