AP TS spat hots up

Centre rushes MHA official to Hyd

Hyderabad: What started as a political ‘cash-for-vote’ scam appears to be turning in to a constitutional crisis forcing the Governor and the Centre to step in and handle the matter. The day-long high drama witnessed many twists and turns. While the ACB said that it would issue notices to AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, the AP government also reacted in similar manner and announced that the government had shifted all the cases filed against the TS Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to the CID. The CID team went to Vijayawada to collect data and other files on Tuesday.

The CID would also probe into the complaint filed by the cash-for-vote accused Mathaiah with the Satyanarayanapuram police in Vijayawada last week. Mathaiah alleged that he had threat to his life from the TS Chief Minister and the ACB. In the meantime, Telangana TDP senior leader Kothakota Dayakar Reddy late on Tuesday night said his party had gathered all evidences to fix two IPS and one IAS official of the Telangana government in the phone-tapping scam.

He said the AP government would arrest the officials in next few hours. Amidst this scenario, Governor ESL Narasimhan is said to have sought the opinion of the Chief Justice of High Court on the issue of Section 8 of the AP State Reorganisation Act. Taking note of the developments taking place in the State, the Union Home Ministry too has decided to rush a senior officer Alok who is a joint secretary in the ministry, to Hyderabad.

Alok would reach here on Wednesday and will call on the Governor to discuss the current political situation. On the other hand, the AP Cabinet is meeting on Wednesday where the phone-tapping issue and the related developments are likely to figure. According to ministers K Atchannaidu and P Pulla Rao, the AP government had shown enough restraint and would now retaliate in a befitting manner.

Security has been beefed up around Andhra Secretariat from Tuesday and AP police was deployed inside the premises to look after the security. It is said that the TS government has also speeded up its investigation into the cash-for-vote scam and is waiting for the report from the forensic department to fix the AP Chief Minister and issue notices to him.

The sources claim that various tapes containing the purported talk between nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson and Chandrababu Naidu seemed to have provided fool-proof evidence to nail the AP Chief Minister.Legal experts opined that based on various judgments of Supreme Court in similar instances in the past, there was no scope for Chandrababu Naidu to escape an arrest even on technical grounds.

KCR held prolonged discussions with ACB Director-General AK Khan, Commissioner of Police Mahender Reddy and other senior police officials. The issuing of notices to the AP Chief Minister and subsequent procedures to be adopted were stated to have figured during the meeting.

The repercussions following the serving of notice to Chandrababu Naidu seemed to have been thoroughly debated.The AP Chief Minister was also busy charting out his plans by holding discussions with his confidants and senior police officials. Apart from AP DGP, ACB and intelligence chiefs, Union minister Y S Chowdary was also present at the meeting.