Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy is believed to have asked his ministerial colleagues from Seemandhra to wait till the Congress leadership takes a final decision on the Telangana issue to decide their course of action _ whether to resign or not.
On a day when rumours over the resignations of ministers from Seemandhra including the chief minister travelled thick and fast, Sake Sailajanath, Kondru Murali Mohan, Erasu Prathap Reddy, M Maheedhar Reddy, P Bala Raju and Syed Mohammed Ahmadullah called on Kiran Kumar Reddy at his camp office here on Saturday evening soon after their return from Delhi. According to sources, when these ministers expressed their intent to put in their papers in protest against the party leadership’s decision to form Telangana state, Kiran told them to exercise restraint till the Congress Working Committee takes a final call on the issue.
Reddy told them that he had tried his best to convince the Congress high command that the state should not be divided. When AICC supremo Sonia had Gandhi told him that it would be the responsibility of the chief minister, his deputy and the PCC chief to implement the high command’s decision, he told her that he could not be part of the process of bifurcation of the state, he told his colleagues.
After meeting Kiran, minister Bala Raju told reporters that they had discussed the present political developments with the chief minister.
“When we had conveyed our decision to resign from the cabinet for the sake of keeping the state united, the chief minister asked us not to take any extreme step. He asked us to wait till the party leadership takes its final decision on the issue as we have already put forward our argument in favour of keeping the present Andhra Pradesh as it is with documentary details before the party leadership,” he said.
‘Umpiring’ Decision Upsets Star Batsman
Chief minister Kiran Reddy, who is considered to be the star batsman for the Seemandhra team, was so upset by the decision of his party high command that he did not go to the Secretariat on Saturday. He reviewed the rain and flood situation from his camp office. He also did not meet any guests except his cabinet colleagues in the evening. He did not go out either except for the convocation at NALSAR University of Law. He reached the venue by a helicopter, observed stony silence and chose not to address the gathering.