Shankar rao enters CLP office

HYDERABAD: Succeeding at last in using the Congress Legislature Party office’s media conference room to address the press, senior Congress MLA and former minister P Shankar Rao said on Saturday that he stood by his remarks on chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and his coterie. He asked the mediapersons to wait and see whether his prediction about the Kiran government would turn out true or not. Shankar Rao lodged a complaint against the chief minister and CLP executive members with the Assembly speaker and police on Friday. On Saturday morning Rao contacted government chief whip Gandra Venkataramana Reddy and told him that he wanted to address a press conference at the CLP office. When he reached the place, the CLP office staff opened the doors of the media room for him. Rao said he would not speak anything against party’s interests. “I am a watchdog of the Congress,’’ he claimed.Breaking his silence on YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, he dismissed talk of his match-fixing with the YSRCP chief. He said he was a committed Congress worker and would fight corruption at all the levels. He demanded criminal action against NCERT officials who included in the textbooks two sarcastic cartoons on Jawaharlal Nehru and BR Ambedkar. He also demanded that TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu  withdraw his comments on the demand for Bharat Ratna for Dr BR Ambedkar.