Congress distraught as rebels stay in fray

• High drama as PCC chief, Chief Minister try all means
• Cong gets MLAs to announce withdrawal of support
• Rebels insist that once given, signatures can’t be invalidated
• Returning officer rules their nominations are valid
• JC says either of them will withdraw to put up a strong fight
• Meanwhile, nomination of Jajula Bhaskar has been rejected
• Finally, eight candidates vying for six seats from the State

Hyderabad: The Congress party suffered a major setback on Wednesday as it failed in all its efforts to see that the nominations of the rebel candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections were rejected. After high drama and several twists, Raja Sadaram, the returning officer (RO), announced that he had rejected the nomination of Jajula Bhaskar of Shramajeevi Party as it was not in order. Accompanied by Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwarlal, he said that the papers of two rebel candidates – K V V Satyanarayana Raju alias Chaitanya Raju and Adala Prabhakar Reddy – were valid.

With this eight candidates are now in the fray for six seats.

The efforts to see that the rebels withdraw from the race began on Tuesday night. Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy called up the two candidates up and asked them to withdraw from the contest, but both of them turned down his plea.

PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana met eight MLAs who supported Raju and another eight who supported Prabhakar Reddy, and took letters from them, saying that they were withdrawing their support to these candidates. The letter said they had signed on the nomination papers, thinking that they would be the official candidates but since they turned out to be rebels they were not supporting him.

Botcha handed over these letters personally to the RO. He also gave a letter, saying that the two rebel candidates had forged some of the signatures, and hence their nominations should be rejected.

On Wednesday morning, Botcha and senior Ministers like Anam Ramanarayana Reddy and the party’s official candidate K V P Ramachandra Rao swung into action and tried all possible methods to force them to withdraw from the contest. Minister Vatti Vasant Kumar complained to the RO that Raju had a criminal case against him, and hence his nomination should be rejected.

In view of this development, the RO sought the advice of the Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwarlal. The CEO reached the Assembly to help the RO scrutinise the nominations and clarify the rule position.

The Congress team also employed lawyers to the RO to get the rebels' nominations rejected. The rebel candidates also took their lawyers and made it clear that once the members put their signatures on the nomination forms, they cannot withdraw the same, and that the RO cannot reject their nominations on that ground. They also threatened to go to court if their papers were rejected. On the other hand, Minister for Finance Anam Ramanarayana Reddy called over 10 of the MLAs who supported the rebels and made them sit in his room for over an hour as there was a rumour that the RO had asked the two rebels to physically present before him those who signed the nominations. But later, Sadaram denied having said so.

The RO's ruling left the Congress team distraught and the rebels euphoric. "This is a victory of democracy," Adala later told reporters and vowed to remain in the fray. He said, "The Congress leaders tortured me in many ways in the last two days. But I refused to budge. I will continue in the fray for the cause of a united state," Adala said.

Senior most MLA J C Diwakar Reddy, who was the driving force behind the rebels, said one of the two candidates might eventually opt out. "To give a strong fight and win the election, only one of the two rebels should be in the fray," he noted.