File photo of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is prepping to launch a hunger strike to protest against the Centre over what he sees as a possible move to "take away law and order powers" from his government, sources in his office told NDTV.
KCR, as the Telangana chief minister is known, is reportedly enraged by the Centre suggesting that ESL Narasimhan, who is Governor of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, monitor police investigations into what has been dubbed as the cash-for-votes scandal. Yesterday, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, who is the centre's top lawyer, told NDTV, that the " Governor can summon the police chiefs of the two states (AP and Telangana) and ask them to report to him on this case."
KCR inhabits a deep hostility with Chandrababu Naidu, the Chief Minister of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, not least because their states share the capital of Hyderabad.
KCR is enraged by what Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told NDTV yesterday - that ESL Narasimhan, as the Governor of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, can monitor police investigations into what has been dubbed as the cash-for-votes scandal.
TV channels in Telangana recently broadcast a secretly-recorded conversation in which a law-maker from Mr Naidu's party was heard offering a bribe for another legislator's support for a local election. That deal was authorized by Mr Naidu, claimed a channel owned by KCR and his family.
Mr Naidu in retaliation has alleged that his legislators' phones have been illicitly tapped at KCR's behest.
KCR says that the Attorney General's advice to the Governor on the cash-for-votes investigation further proves that the centre wants to appropriate major administrative powers in Hyderabad. The Act that creates Telangana as a new state gives the Governor special powers (under the controversial Section 8) to maintain law and order in Hyderabad, a clause KCR has strongly objected to in the past.