Andhra IT minister issued show-cause notice

The Andhra Pradesh minister for information technology Komatireddy Venkatreddy told mediapersons in Hyderabad that he had not received the notice from the All India Congress Committee and will respond to it when he receives it.

He defended his remarks against Chief Minister  K Rosiah saying, "I had reflected the emotions and feelings of the people of Telangana".

K Venkat Reddy, a third time legislator from Nalgonda is the brother of K Rajagopal Reddy, Congress member of Lok Sabha from Bhongir in the same district. Both the brothers were close to the late chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.

Meanwhile, on the issue of withdrawing the resignations three ministers K Venkat Reddy, Sridhar Rao and Sudarshan Reddy told the state Congress president that they will take a decision only after seeing the outcome of the meeting in New Delhi on January 5.

Earleir, the Congress high command issued a show-cause notice to rebel Andhra Pradesh minister from Telangana K Venkata Reddy, who raised a storm by attacking Chief Minister K Rosaiah, for 'deliberately lowering party's prestige.'

The notice was issued by All India Congress Committee General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi, who is in-charge of organisational affairs, after he received a report from Veerappa Moily, Congress in-charge of Andhra Pradesh.

In the notice, Reddy, who has also reportedly refused to take back his resignation which was submitted to party chief Sonia Gandhi, has been charged with 'deliberately lowering the prestige of the party.'

Dwivedi has given seven days time for Reddy to reply. Reddy had on Thursday hit out at Rosaiah over his comments that Naxalites were involved in the statehood movement, saying that his remarks were affecting the bifurcation of the state.

"It is not proper for the CM and DGP to say that Naxalites and ex-Naxalites have joined the Telangana movement in full force. He should not try to scuttle the formation of Telangana by sending reports to the Centre or by speaking to the media like this," he had said.

"He (Rosaiah) should behave like the Chief Minister for Andhra Pradesh and not just for coastal Andhra, at least till the state is divided," the minister said.

Meanwhile, Reddy and Sridhar Babu met the state Congress president D Srinivas late on Friday night to discuss the issue of their resignations.

Srinivas again impressed upon them the need of withdrawing their resignation in the light of the initiative taken by the Central government.

After the meeting the two ministers, he said that they will take a decision on their resignations on Saturday.

"After P Chidambaram's invitation to the political parties for talks, it looks like the process for the formation of Telangana state has begun," he added.

Additional reportage: PTI