Jagan meets Jatley, Suravaram

New Delhi, April 7: Continuing the
Save Democracy campaign, Leader of Opposition in AP Assembly YS Jagan Mohan
Reddy has met the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, CPI General Secretary
Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy and leaders of other political parties to mobilize
public opinion against the induction of turncoats in to the cabinet.

Speaking to media after meeting the
Union Finance Minister, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has said here on Friday: ‘ we
apprised the issue of giving cabinet berths to defectors and told him that the
spirit of democracy and constitution is at stake by such deeds and since TDP is
a coalition partner, such practices should be discouraged.

There is a petition pending against
the 21 defectors with the Speaker of Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly
seeking disqualification including the four who were given ministerial berths
which is a blot of parliamentary democracy, he said.

The Speaker has taken no action
against the defectors and allowed them to sit in the treasury benches and four
of them were now picked up for minister’s berth which is highly condemnable.

‘We have also given a representation
to the Finance Minister about the AgriGold scam and how 19.5 lakh depositors
from the state were duped by the Company and how people in power have been able
to amass wealth and buy property at throw away prices without addressing the
problems of the investors. We have also asked the Finance Minister to review
the stand on Special Status as it is beneficial to state, he said.

Earlier, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has met
CPI General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy seeking his Party support for the Save
Democracy campaign and to strengthen the laws to disqualify turncoats within a
time span if no action was taken by the Speaker.

Brushing aside the criticism about
the cases he has been facing he said,’ these are false cases foisted against me
with political motives. The cases were filed by Congress and TDP leaders for
political gains and I was denied bail, which normally comes after 90 days but I
was kept me in jail for 16 months. The investigation is going on and it is
unfair to jump to any conclusion or pass remarks on the issue, he said.

YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had met the
President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday and submitted a representation on the
TDP’s undemocratic act of taking turncoats into the cabinet. He is in the
national cabinet on a Save Democracy campaign and to meet opinion makers to
drive home the point that defections should be discouraged.