Cong for hardline stance against deadline setters

• PCC President warns 'troubling' leaders either to believe in leadership or quit
• Defends Sabitha, Dharmana; says no evidence to show quid pro quo

V Ramu Sarma

Hyderabad: The state PCC is taking a hardline in regard to all those leaders who want to quit the party. Referring to the deadlines fixed by three MPs M Jaganadham, S Rajaiah and G Vivekanand, who had threatened to quit the party if the high command does not take a decision on separate Telangana by month end, PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana said that time had come for the party to adopt a clear line on such issues.A Talking to The Hans India here on Tuesday on the eve of broad- based meeting of mandal, district and city Congress leaders, Botcha said, "Those who believe in the party leadership and its policies will stay and the rest can quit. If someone is determined to go I cannot stop them."

Replying to a question, Botcha said that YSRC Party should "hung its head in shame" as the party members were moving around freely and claiming that they are very honest while their leader had amassed huge wealth during YSR's regime and was languishing in jail. On the other hand the ministers who did no wrong were suffering. While one minister is in jail, two had resigned on Monday. If chargesheets were filed against the ministers who had signed the controversial GOs, they too may have to resign. If the Congress does not adopt a clear line and go to people, it will have to face problems. The party has two main opponents, the TDP and the YSRCP and it will treat both of them equally, he said.

Defending the two ministers Dharmana Prasada Rao and Sabitha Indra Reddy who had resigned from the cabinet on Monday, he said, the ministers cannot be held be responsible for the actions that had taken place behind their back. The probe agency did not find any evidence that the ministers had received any benefits for the decisions; there was no quid pro quo, he said. It was YSRCP chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy, who had received benefits through shady deals, for which the ministers cannot be held responsible, he further said. The ministers were responsible only to the extent of joint decisions taken by the cabinet and not what happened behind their back. Unfortunately the media has branded them as tainted, which is very is wrong, he said.

In reply to another question, the PCC leader strongly denied that the gap between him and the chief minister was widening. He said it was media creation. "There is no gap between me and the chief minister. We discuss various issues and are constantly meet each other," he said, however, he evaded a reply as to why he had recently said that chief minister did not tell him about schemes like Bangaru Thalli or Amma Hastam.

When asked about the TDP allegation that the government was implementing their welfare schemes by changing names, he said, "Congress party was not a Xerox copy of TDP. TDP never conceived schemes like Amma Hastam or Bangaru Thalli. Turning his ire over the YSRCP, he said they claim that we have stopped implementing welfare schemes launched during YSRs period, but so far they have not mentioned which scheme has been scrapped. All the schemes implemented by YSR were that of Congress party. Not his personal schemes. YSRCP should answer which of the schemes have been scrapped. Arogyasri, free power, housing for poor etc are continuing and some of the schemes have been further improved to benefit the poor, he said.

If the high command decides to implement one man one post, which one would Botcha prefer. To this question, he said he would reiterate that he would prefer PCC presidents post.A On the issue of separate T state, he said the issue will not figure at Wednesday meeting, since it was not region wise party workers meeting.

Cong meet on local body polls today

Hyderabad: The stage is set for a broad-based meeting of grass-root level Congress leaders for gearing them up to face all elections from Panchayat Raj level to the general elections, whenever they are held.A The party leadership does not rule out the possibility of early elections to Assembly, though they say the chances are remote. This issue is said to have figured during the talks Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy had with party high command leaders during his three day visit to Delhi last week.

Talking to the media, Botcha said that about 1,500 participants would be attending the broad-based meeting to be held on Wednesday at Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy stadium. Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha, Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, Maheedhar Reddy and Kanna Lakshminarayana will address the party leaders, as majority of the welfare programmes being implemented by the government are dealt by the departments headed by them.