VIJAYAWADA: The Cabinet rejig in Andhra Pradesh has triggered internal bickering in Telugu Desam Party as senior leader and MLA Bojjala Gopalakrishna Reddy, who has been withdrawn from the Cabinet, submitted his resignation and at least three more MLAs threatened to quit the party on Sunday.
Bojjala Gopalakrishna Reddy submitted his resignation to Governor ESL Narasimhan and also the Chief Minister on Sunday after having been removed from the Cabinet.
Following the tendering of resignation, the CM reportedly telephoned the former minister to explain the reasons for removing him from the Cabinet. The issue is learnt to have been sorted out after the senior leader agreed to cooperate and work for strengthening the party.
However, several other leaders who expected the Cabinet berth till late last night, sent feelers and expressed their dissatisfaction for not inducting them into the Cabinet.
Denduluru MLA Chinatamaneni Prabhakar held a meeting with his partymen and is learnt to have decided to take up the issue with the Chief Minister. He reportedly vowed to resign from the party and start a new party at the meeting. Interestingly, another MLA Badeti Bujji also came out in support of Prabhakar.
In Vijayawada, MLA Bonda Umamaheswara Rao sent signals over his plans to quit the party for not inducting him into the Cabinet. But minutes later, Vijayawada MP Kesineni Nani, Machilipatnam MP Konakalla Narayana and other leaders arrived at the residence of Bonda Umamaheswara Rao to persuade the latter to withdraw his decision. Chandrababu Naidu reportedly summoned him to his residence and asked him to cooperate with the party’s decision.
Meanwhile, senior TDP leader and Ponnur MLA Dhulipalla Narendra is also learnt to have expressed his displeasure against the party leadership for omitting him during the Cabinet expansion. In a meeting with his aides in Guntur, the MLA allegedly expressed his anguish stating that despite being an MLA for five times, he was ignored by the party leadership.