Congress MP, MLA lock horns over Vizag LS seat

An MP and an MLA of the ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh eyeing a Lok Sabha ticket for the Visakhapatnam constituency have started crossing swords with the former even threatening to file a defamation suit for Rs 5 crore over certain remarks made by the MLA.
T Subbarami Reddy, currently a member of Rajya Sabha, triggered the war by announcing that he would contest the Lok Sabha election from Visakhapatnam constituency that he had represented in the 90s.
He suggested that Union Minister of State for Commerce Daggubati Purandeswari, now representing Visakhapatnam, shift her base to Narsaraopet Lok Sabha segment.

Purandeswari and her MLA-husband Daggubati Venkateswara Rao had remained silent all these days, but Reddy's assertion that he was instrumental in getting the couple into the Congress and that Purandeswari requested him to get Narsaraopet Lok Sabha seat allotted to her, prompted them to come out in the open.
"We never approached Subbarami Reddy for anything," Venkateswara Rao rebutted.
He went on to dig into Subbarami Reddy's past and recalled his alleged involvement in the cement scandal during the construction of Nagarjuna Sagar dam in the 1970s.

An infuriated Subbarami Reddy then hit back calling Venkateswara Rao "mad".
The MP, in turn, threatened to sue the MLA for "defamation" of Rs 5 crore.

"Rs 5 crore will be a small amount for a man like Subbarami Reddy. Let the matter go to court. More dark facts about him will then come to light," the MLA dared the MP.
In the last two days since the verbal duel began, Purandeswari remained silent though she had once earlier said that it was for the Congress high command to decide who should contest from where.
Senior Congress leader and MP V Hanumantha Rao said that it was not right on part of the two leaders to wash dirty linen in public.
"It may not do any personal damage to either Subbarami Reddy or Venkateswara Rao but the Congress' image will get tarnished," Hanumantha Rao lamented.