5 Andhra ministers reject CM's plea to withdraw resignations

Hyderabad, Jul 13: Five ministers from Telangana region met Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy after a lot of persuasion by state Congress chief and Transport Minister Botsa Satyanarayana, but they rejected his plea to withdraw their resignations.

The ministers also reportedly told Reddy that they would express solidarity with their fellow legislators who proposed to launch a 48-hour hunger-strike here.

While these five ministers -- D Sreedhar Reddy, Sunitha Laxma Reddy, Ramreddy Venkat Reddy, Sabitha Indra Reddy and D K Aruna -- will not sit on fast, at least three or four ministers are expected to join the Telangana Congress MPs, MLCs and MLAs in the programme, party sources said.

The chief minister as well as the PCC president tried in vain to prevail upon all the 12 ministers from Telangana not to sit on fast as it would show the government in poor light.

Earlier in the day, most of the ministers from Telangana region, who resigned from the membership of the Assembly on July 4 demanding creation of a separate state, did not attend a meeting called by the chief minister tonight.

Instead, the ministers met only the PCC chief and their cabinet colleague Botsa at his residence even as hectic efforts have been initiated by the party leadership to prevail upon the legislators to take back their resignations.

However, upon Botsa's request, five ministers finally drove to the chief minister's camp office for a meeting after 10 pm, Congress sources said.

In a desperate bid to save the party as well as the government 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.

PTI