HC Issues Notice To Talasani Over Being Minister

In what is being described as a shock to the KCR government, the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday ordered the issuance of a notice to Commercial Taxes Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav for holding the post of a minister in the Telangana government after defecting from the Telugu Desam Party to the ruling TRS Party without resigning and being re-elected.

Admitting a writ petition filed by one Thangella Sivaprasad Reddy seeking disqualification of Srinivas Yadav as minister, the High Court asked the latter to give an explanation within four weeks.

The court also asked the minister to file a counter-affidavit and posted the case to four weeks later.

The issue of Talasani becoming a minister had become a controversy, as the Telangana Telugu Desam Party leaders Errabelli Dayakar Rao, L Ramana and A Revanth Reddy had complained to Governor E S L Narasimhan to initiate action against the minister.

However, the Governor had no say in this regard, as the Assembly Speaker S Madhusudhana Chary is the authority authorized to either accept or reject Talasani's resignation.

If the Speaker now accepts his resignation, it will lead to a by-election in the Sanathnagar constituency from where Talasani was elected as MLA on a TDP ticket.

When the TDP leaders had earlier approached the High Court, the judges had felt that the ball was in the court of the Speaker. This time around, the court responded and asked the minister to explain how he, a TDP legislator, could continue as minister, it is learnt.

The minister had repeatedly been insisting that he had tendered his resignation to the MLA's position and that the Speaker had to take a decision. He had also expressed readiness to contest and win a by-election as and when the situation arose.

Technically speaking, Speaker Madhusudhana Chary now has to take a decision (though only at the behest of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao) to put an end to the controversy.