YSRCP Lok Sabha member Raghu Ramakrishnam Raju openly criticized the Andhra Pradesh government over certain policies that did not go down too well with the party leadership. The political environment has heated up after Rajya Sabha MP Vijaysai Reddy had issued a show cause notice against Raju who questioned its legal sanctity.
Now, the YSRCP MPs have decided to take up the issue to New Delhi. The MPs are meeting Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. The MPs will be flying in a special chartered flight from Vijaywada to New Delhi. It is learnt Raghurama Krishnam Raju may face the axe from the party. The party is likely to disqualify the MP. A disqualification petition is likely to be placed before the Lok Sabha Speaker against Raju on the ground that he is indulging in anti-party activities.
Meanwhile, Raju on Thursday dashed off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Earlier, Raju had also written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla expressing fear of threat to his life from his party’s leaders in his native district West Godavari district. In his letter written to the Speaker on June 18, Raju had requested that he be provided security by police protection in the wake of increased threats from YSRCP leader.
Earlier, Raju met the officials of the Election Commission of India, Defence minister Rajnath Singh and Minister of Home for State Kishan Reddy. ,
Reacting sharply to the show-cause notice issued by YSRCP Rajya Sabha MP Vijayasai Reddy, Raju sought to know if YSRCP has an internal committee to deal with inter-party disciplinary issues. Raju also questioned as to who heads the internal disciplinary committee of the YSRCP. Further, he sought to know if the internal disciplinary committee of the party is recognised by the Election Commission of India.
Most importantly, the Lok Sabha MP questioned the legal sanctity of the show-cause sent by Vijayasai Reddy. In his response, Raju stated that the show-cause notice lacked legal sanctity as it was served under the letter head of the YSR Congress Party instead of the party name ‘Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party’ which is the registered name in the Election Commission of India. Further, he sought to know in what capacity Vijayasai Reddy has sent the show cause notice to him.
“I am surprised to see you designating yourself as national general secretary of our party which is Registered as State recognised party as per Para 6A of the Election Symbols Reservation and Allotment Order 1968.”
Raju had been publicly critical of various omissions and commissions of the YSRCP government, including its policy on sand, land and liquor.
The Lok Sabha MP openly expressed his displeasure over the proposed sale of TTD assets stating that such a move would hurt the sentiments of the devotees. He criticised the government’s move to implement English medium in government schools. In Times Newshour debate, Raju also admitted wide-spread Christian conversions in Andhra Pradesh.
The YSRCP MP had also raised the issue of sand scarcity in AP due to the flawed policy adopted by the Jagan government which has led to a steep spike in the price of sand thereby paralyzing the construction industry. More recently, Raju used Rajanikant’s popular dialogue (Nanna pandule gumpuga vastayi simham Single ga vastundi — pigs come in herd , but a lion walks in solo) to hit out at his political critics.
