HYDERABAD: K Rosaiah and the Congress Legislature Party today sought to put a united face to deny reports that supporters of Jaganmohan Reddy were not not cooperating with the interim chief minister.
As the party grapples with the succession issues, media reported that ministers, loyal to Jaganmohan Reddy, the son of late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy were ignoring Rosaiah and were not not attending review meetings called by him.
Rosaiah, (77), a Congress veteran who has been a minister in successive party governments, asserted today that his Council of Ministers was "united" and all the members were working "together".
"We are all united. The entire Cabinet is determined to fulfil the dreams of our leader Y S Rajasekhara Reddy to set an example in the country in development and welfare schemes. We are working together with proper understanding," he told reporters.
Referring to reports that some ministers, die-hard supporters of YSR's son Jaganmohan Reddy refused to "recognise" Rosaiah and skipped the review meetings chaired by him in the last couple of days, the Chief Minister said they had obtained his permission to attend other programmes, particularly the condolence meetings for YSR in their respective districts.
Meanwhile, the Congress Legislature Party issued a statement, listing names of all the 34 ministers, condemning the media reports against them.
"It is most unfortunate that some of the news papers are writing articles, stories that the ministers are not discharging their official functions, not cooperating with Chief Minister Rosaiah and not attending the review meetings chaired by him. This is totally baseless and far from truth," the statement said.
A section of the media was indulging in such mud-slinging with a view to "de-stabilise" the Congress party and the government, the statement alleged.
It added that the ministers visited their respective constituencies to conduct condolence meetings for YSR as well as console families which lost their kin in shock after the late Chief Minister s tragic death.
Most of the ministers were available in the state capital and attending review meetings arranged by the Chief Minister, it added.
"We have not yet come out of the grief of losing our beloved leader. It is not fair for the media to send a wrong message to the public through such negative campaign," the CLP statement, quoting the ministers, said.