Rajasekhara Reddy "weighing pros and cons"
S. Santosh Reddy refuses to resign
Chief Minister acting against interests of Telengana, says TRS
Party not to pull out of UPA
HYDERABAD July 05 2005: Five Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Ministers resigned from the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy Government on Monday. This brings to an end the party's 12-month-old uneasy coalition with the Congress in Andhra Pradesh.
Without informing the Chief Minister, TRS Ministers G. Vijayarama Rao (Civil Supplies), T. Harish Rao (Youth Services), A. Chandrasekhar (Minor Irrigation) and V. Laxmikanth Rao (Backward Classes Welfare) submitted their letters of resignation to Governor Sushil Kumar Shinde on Monday afternoon.
They also handed over a copy of the resignation letter of Naini Narasimha Reddy (Technical Education) faxed from Detroit, United States, where he is participating in a meeting hosted by the Telugu Association of North America.
The Governor reserved his decision as he awaited the Chief Minister's opinion. Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy, who called on the Governor minutes after the TRS Ministers put in their papers, said he would communicate his view to Mr. Shinde after weighing the pros and cons. He was talking to reporters at the Raj Bhavan where he had gone to brief the Governor about his trip to Israel, Egypt and Dubai.
The senior TRS leader, S. Santosh Reddy, who holds the Transport portfolio, refused to quit the Cabinet. He termed the decision of TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao asking them to resign "political brinkmanship." He said this was not the opportune time for such action. Before asking him to quit, Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao ought to have stepped down as Union Minister, he said.
The TRS leaders, however, contended that the Minister had been consulted and that he had offered to abide by the collective decision."It is a matter of one or two days before he too resigns," Mr. Vijayarama Rao said at the Raj Bhavan.
He blamed Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy for the crisis accusing him of acting against the interests of Telangana and treating the TRS Ministers in a contemptuous manner. He said the TRS had no intention of pulling out of the Centre, where the UPA Government was in power as distinct from the Congress Government in Andhra Pradesh. "Moreover, we have confidence in the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and in the UPA to deliver a separate Telangana," he said.
The TRS leader said they had been cautioning the Chief Minister for the last six months against taking decisions detrimental to the interests of Telangana. These included the location of Pulichantala project, attempts to deprive water from the Pranahita river to Telangana, reviving talks with the naxalites and implementation of GO 610 for repatriation of non-local employees from Telangana. "Unfortunately, the Chief Minister brushed us aside yesterday when he told reporters that it is a waste of time to talk to us," he said.
The withdrawal of support by the junior coalition partner with 26 MLAs is unlikely to affect the stability of the Government as the Congress enjoys a majority of 185 in the 294-member Assembly. All the other parties in the House, barring the TDP (46) and the BJP (2), support the YSR Government.
