In a snub to Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, Andhra Pradesh ministers from Telangana, who have resigned from the membership of the state Assembly demanding creation of a separate state, did not attend a meeting called by him tonight.
Instead, the ministers preferred to meet only the Pradesh Congress Committee chief and their Cabinet colleague Botsa Satyanarayana at his residence even as hectic efforts have been initiated by the party leadership to prevail upon the legislators to take back their resignations.
In a desperate bid to save the party as well as the government's face, the AICC reportedly instructed the Chief Minister and the state Congress president to hold talks with the Telangana leaders and see that they drop their proposed 48-hour hunger-strike from tomorrow.
However, the Telangana Congress leaders – seething over the statement by AICC general secretary, in charge of AP affairs, Ghulam Nabi Azad on the statehood issue today – asserted that they would go ahead with the fast plan despite intervention by the party leadership.
There was a high drama in the Congress here today with the Chief Minister first speaking to senior minister K. Jana Reddy in the morning on the resignations issue.
Jana reportedly told Kiran Kumar that they could not go back on their resignations without the party high command coming out with a specific assurance on creation of Telangana state.
In the afternoon, the Chief Minister held talks with Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha and PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana in the Secretariat.