Hyderabad: Alleging "criminalisation of Andhra Pradesh cabinet", Opposition Congress on September 23 demanded resignation of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu owning "moral" responsibility for a "wave of scams rocking the state" and a judicial inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge into the politician-criminal nexus.

The multi-crore fake stamp paper racket involving ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA), C Krishna Yadav rocked the Assembly on September 23, with Congress seeking to put the government on the mat for "deliberately scuttling investigations into the biggest scam that the country had ever seen".

"Yadav's arrest shows that criminal elements have penetrated into the government. It is only the tip of an iceberg and there are doubts over involvement of several ruling party bigwigs in the scandal," Congress member K R Suresh Reddy said while initiating a debate on "criminalisation of politics and scams with specific reference to fake stamp paper racket".

The issue triggered a furore, with treasury benches and opposition trading charges, questioning each other's political morality and seeking to dig each other's criminal past.

The government came in for sharp attack over continuance of Housing Minister P Ramasubba Reddy in the Cabinet despite facing charges in a twin murder case and the high court passing strictures against him.

"The refusal to remove him (Reddy) from the Cabinet shows the level of political degradation and scant respect for the judiciary," the Congress member said and demanded that Naidu should "step down on moral and ethical grounds".

PTI