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ZPTC defeat: 2 Ministers resign from Cabinet

HYDERABAD: In an unexpected political development, two Ministers, Maganti Venkateswara Rao and M. Mareppa, resigned from the Cabinet on Friday night owning moral responsibility for the Congress party’s defeat in the byelection to Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs) in their respective districts.

An official press release said Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy forwarded their letters of resignation to Governor N.D. Tiwari with the recommendation that they may be accepted. He earlier informed AICC general secretary Veerappa Moily and PCC president D. Srinivas about the resignations and his proposal to accept them.

Mr. Rao, Minister for Minor Irrigation, told reporters in Eluru that he would continue as MLA and as a Congress party worker. The defeat of party nominees in ZPTC elections from Denduluru in West Godavari and Alur in Kurnool, has embarrassed the Congress leadership since both these are part of the Assembly constituencies by the same name represented by the two Ministers. The party has also lost Makloor ZPTC seat in Nizamabad, the native district of APCC president D. Srinivas.

These elections, however, covered a small section of the total electorate since three or more ZPTCs constitute an Assembly segment while an MPTC seat is broadly co-terminus with a gram panchayat. The APCC leadership is irked at the overconfidence of the local leadership in Nizamabad and Kurnool districts and plans to seek reports from the DCC chiefs on the debacle in Makloor and Alur ZPTC seats.

In spite of the difficulties faced by these two Ministers, the Congress shared honours with the Telugu Desam Party in the byelection to seven ZPTCs. Both these parties won three ZPTC seats each while an independent backed by the fledgling Praja Rajyam won in Kurnool district on Friday.

Congress candidates won from Peravali, Achanta (both in West Godavari) and Kirlampudi (East Godavari) ZPTC seats, but conceded Alur (Kurnool), Makloor (Nizamabad) and Dendulur (West Godavari) to the Telugu Desam. Allagadda ZPTC (Kurnool) went to the PR-backed independent candidate.

The Congress swept the bypolls for the 49 Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTCs) which were held on December 30, by bagging 31 seats leaving the TDP far behind with a tally of nine while the remaining nine were won by independents. The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) did not field candidates. APCC general secretary Nadendla Manohar said the results showed that people had acknowledged government’s good work and that there was no negative influence of the incumbency factor. A Telugu Desam Party spokesman expressed satisfaction at the party’s performance in the byelections and said the victories were commendable given the keen contests.

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