by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
Exclusive Report
Centre steps in as CMs of AP-Telangana fight bitterly
Governor to set up SIT to probe Cash-for-Vote scam
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, June 21
The Modi government has decided to step in as the show down between the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is snowballing into a major crisis over the “Cash-for-vote-" scam.
The Centre has advised ESL Narasimhman who is the Governor of both the states, that he should invoke his special powers and directly take charge of investigations into the bribery and telephone tapping scandal that has rocked Hyderabad for the past several weeks.
Highly placed sources in the government say that a worried ESL Narasimhman rushed to New Delhi to meet the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi two weeks ago, was asked to consult Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to resolve the developing crisis. Later, Attorney General of India Mukul Rohtagi advised the Governor to invoke Section 8 of The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 which gives special powers to the Governor for “security of life, liberty and property of all those who reside in the common capital area” of Hyderabad. It may be mentioned that Hyderabad is the common Capital of the two states for ten years under the Act and the Governor is its Chief Administrator.
The trouble began when the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Telangana Police arrested TDP legislator Revanth Reddy and two others in Hyderabad for allegedly trying to hand over bribe of Rs.50 lakh on May 31 to buy votes. The TDP-BJP alliance wanted that its candidate to win in the Telangana legislative council elections. The ACB tapped the telephones of Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu with the TDP MLA Stephenson which surfaced in the media surfaced on June 7 and all hell broke.
The Andhra Pradesh CID swung into action last week and lodged a criminal case against Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
This is the first case of its kind wherein the police of two states have lodged cases against the Chief Ministers. The two Chief Ministers do not see eye to eye and not even on talking terms. This is also first time in the recent history that the CM of one state has lodged a criminal case against the sitting CM of a neighbouring state sharing a common Capital.
The Centre has now told the Governor to form a Special Investigation and take over the probe of the case in the interest of peace and tranquility of the two states and Hyderabad.
