HYDERABAD: The ball appears to be in the court of the party high command as far as disqualification of the 17 J-camp legislators, who supported the no-confidence motion in the Assembly, are concerned.As there are two schools of thought on the issue that the proceedings should be quick and summary and that any haste would only prove to be counterproductive, the state political leadership seems to have left it to the party high command’s decision.The chief minister and PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana are likely to go to Delhi separately and confer with the party bosses on what should be done. Sources said Satyanarayana has already prepared his line of argument - go in for disqualification and face the election boldly but it remains to be seen what view the party leadership would take.At a meeting convened by the chief minister on Wednesday morning, senior ministers D Prasada Rao, A Ramanarayana Reddy, N Raghuveera Reddy, M Maheedhar Reddy, P Satyanarayana and others reportedly cautioned against acting in haste since the party was not in a position to face byelections which would be notified if the 17 MLAs are disqualified. However, they hastened to add that there is a scope of party’s image getting affected if no action is taken against the rebels.Some ministers advised the chief minister against recommending disqualification of the MLAs till the Election Commission issues notification for the six seats that had fallen vacant in Telangana region and one in Nellore district following resignation by the members. The party could take a decision on disqualification basing on the outcome of the byelections.Though they are not very hopeful of an electrifying performance in T belt, they have not lost all hope yet in Andhra region.Delay in taking a decision would help the Congress look for alternative candidates in the constituencies now being represented by the J camp MLAs. And with the help of Chiranjeevi, they feel that the party can prepare the ground for the electoral battle.Sources said Botcha Satyanaryanaa, however, does not want the Congress to brook any delay since the Congress leaders, who are against disqualification were ashamed after Jagan Mohan Reddy dared them to disqualify the MLAs at one go.But swallowing the selfrespect, some of the Congress leaders want some time to look for suitable leaders in those constituencies. They are also of the opinion that as days pass by Jagan’s image would also take a beating with the CBI’s probe into Emaar scam and illegal assets case being in an advanced stage.In all, all the ministers who attended the meeting, decided to abide by the decision of the chief minister and the PCC president. Deputy chief minister C Damodar Rajanarsimha also attended the meeting which lasted for about two hours.After hearing the views of the senior ministers, Kiran Kumar Reddy said that he and PCC chief will take a final decision on the issue after consulting Union minister and incharge of AP affairs Ghulam Nabi Azad.Meanwhile, another senior minister P Shankar Rao, who is maintaining a distance from the chief minister in the recent times, also felt that the government should not act hastily against the Jagan MLAs.
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