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Office of profit: Telangana Congress MLA seeks disqualification of 9 TRS MLAs
Congress MLA A. Revanth Reddy alleged that three of the nine TRS MLAs have been given 'cabinet rank' posts, with 'huge salary and perks' in violation of a high court order
Hyderabad: Telangana Congress leader and Kodangal MLA A. Revanth Reddy on Tuesday appealed to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to disqualify nine Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLAs for holding offices of profit in a complaint similar to the one that led to the disqualification of 20 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators in Delhi.
Reddy, who switched loyalties from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to the Congress in October last year, alleged that three of the nine TRS legislators have been given “cabinet rank” posts, with “huge salary and perks”, in spite of orders from the high court (of Judicature at Hyderabad for the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) in 2015 to the state government to not appoint any other legislators to posts without prior permission.
According to his complaint, TRS MLAs D. Vinay Bhaskar, Jalagam Venkat Rao, V. Srinivas Goud, G. Kishore Kumar, V. Satish Kumar and K. Laxmi were appointed as parliament secretaries, following which he approached the high court. Reddy.
He said that in spite of the court orders (to not make any more such appointments), three more TRS legislators, namely, Erupula Balakishan, Somarapu Satyanarayan and Vemula Prashant Reddy were appointed in different posts with cabinet ranks.
“As per the constitution, (if) any member(s) from either house of a legislature holds any office of profit under (the) Government of India or Government of any state, they should be disqualified as MLAs or MPs,” Reddy said in his letter to the ECI.
Pointing to the disqualification of AAP legislators in New Delhi, he requested the ECI to take action against the nine TRS MLAs, and to recommend to the President of India for their disqualification.
“Naturally, when there is precedence (of AAP MLAs getting disqualified), this is expected. But holding a post for a specific purpose additionally and making profits from them are different things,” said a TRS MP who did not wish to be quoted.
He said it cannot be said that an ‘office of profit’ is held just because an MLA heads a body constituted by the state government for some purpose.
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Business NewsPoliticsPolicyOffice of profit: Telangana Congress MLA seeks disqualification of 9 TRS MLAs
First Published:25 Jan 2018, 03:32 AM IST
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