After nearly four and half months of elections, Chief Minister and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu is meeting with his party MLAs and MLCs on Friday (18th). Though this session is said to be to discuss party membership, party strengthening and government policies, the main agenda is said to be to discuss the performance of MLAs.
In the light of allegations against several party MLAs, allegedly resorting to corruption, pressurizing officials and becoming unpopular in their constituencies, Naidu has reportedly decided to take up corrective measures. He is said to be serious with the interference of some MLAs in the affairs of sand reaches and also liquor shops.
At a time opposition leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy targeted the government and also TDP in view of several criminal cases being slapped against him and also his close associates, TDP chief said to be intended to caution his party legislators to be alert on evil designs of the opposition leaders in their respective constituencies.
Moreover, MLC elections from graduates and teachers constituencies are scheduled to be held soon in coastal districts. Already TDP announced its candidates for graduate constituencies and they are actively taking up graduates enrollment as voters. Chandrababu is likely to direct party MLAs to take these elections very seriously.
Party insiders indicated that Chandrababu is serious that the government failed to receive a number of applications for liquor ships as expected, due to involvement of some MLAs. The government targeted to receive a revenue of Rs 2,000 crore from about 1 lakh applications.
But the applications did not cross 89,000 and the income was also below Rs 18,000 crore. Initially, the excise officials were worried as they received very few applications, as MLAs are preventing many people from competing for shops. Knowing this, the Chief Minister’s Office swung into action and personally cautioned such MLAs. This has led to an increase number of applications. Even then, they failed to reach my target.
However, in several districts MLAs and their close associates grabbed most liquor shops. This has given scope for the YCP leaders to blame that this system was revived only to facilitate TDP leaders to fill up their pockets.