Congress leaders clash at Yellandu council meeting

According to sources, vice chairman Jani Pasha questioned municipal chairman Dammalapati Venkateshwar Rao about improper allocation of funds to municipal wards in the town.

Yellandu (Kothagudem): Yellandu Municipality, which was known for political skirmishes, witnessed more of the same on Saturday, this time with the municipal chairman and vice chairman, both from the Congress, clashing during the council meeting.

According to sources, vice chairman Jani Pasha questioned municipal chairman Dammalapati Venkateshwar Rao about improper allocation of funds to municipal wards in the town. He also objected to the chairman’s visits to the wards without prior intimation to the respective ward councillors. This led to a verbal duel between them and then they started pushing each other. The councillors loyal to the fighting leaders joined them and both the groups jostled each other for some time. Yellandu MLA Koram Kanakaiah, who was present in the meeting, intervened and asked them to calm down.

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It might be recalled that the municipality was in the news in February this year following a no confidence motion moved against Venkateshwar Rao. 19 BRS, CPI and independent councillors moved the no confidence motion. When the floor test was conducted on February 5, two councillors belonging to CPI and BRS were allegedly kidnapped to foil the floor test, purportedly at the behest of the MLA. Photos and visuals of Kanakaiah and his followers forcibly taking a councillor away were circulated on social media at that time.

The then RDO Sirisha who acted as the returning officer for the floor test declared that the no confidence motion was defeated as the required quorum was not met and only 15 councillors were present at the floor test as against the required quorum of 17 councillors. It was learnt that MLA Kanakaiah warned the councillors against circulating either photos or the visuals of the Saturday’s clash on social media or sharing them with the media.