Kiran Reddy: Political sanyas for now?

Hyderabad: Worried over the dwindling number of supporters, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy is said to be having second thoughts about floating a new political party. According to sources, Kiran may opt for political hibernation for a few years. Kiran’s disappointment was evident as he had to drop his plan to go to Raj Bhavan in a padayatra along with his supporters and submit the resignation as not many had turned up. Instead, he drove down to Rajya Sabha in his official convoy. The Congress has 98 MLAs and 21 Ministers from the 13 districts of Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra. Out of them only eight ministers, 16 MLAs and six MLCs were present at CMs camp office.

According to party sources, the AICC which got into damage control exercise took all measures to ensure that at least 60 members did not turn up for the press conference that was held at Chief Minister’s camp office on Wednesday.

The AICC general secretary in charge of state affairs Digvijay Singh, Union Minister K Chiranjeevi, Ministers from the state Kanna Lakshminarayana, C Ramachandraiah, PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana, Dokka Manikya Vara Prasad and others are understood to have called all the MLAs and persuaded them not to go with Kiran. Moreover, the MLAs feel that Kiran had cheated all the Seemandhra Congress leaders by saying that he would stall the process and assured them that the Parliament will not accept the bill if it was rejected by the Assembly. People have now understood CMs game plan and that he was acting as per the script of the party high command, Minister for Endowments C Ramachandraiah said on Wednesday.

Even majority of the ministers who had gone to Raj Bhavan with Kiran are likely to join other parties like YSRCP or TDP.

The ministers who accompanied the CM to Raj Bhavan were Ganta Srinivasa Rao , S Sailajanath, Maheedhar Reddy, K Partha Sarathi, Pithani Satyanarayana, T G Venkatesh, Erasu Pratap Reddy and Kasu Krishan Reddy. Among the MLAs, who accompanied Kiran were Malladi Vishnu, Ugra Narasimha Reddy, Paral Bharati, Silpa Mohan Reddy, G Veerasiva Reddy, Bangaru Usharani, Yerra Venkateswara Reddy, Yellampalli Srinivas, Pantam Mohan Gandhi, Eeli Nani and Anne Rambabu. Senior leaders like J C Diwakar Reddy and Gade Venkat Reddy were conspicuous by their absence. When Kiran returned from Raj Bhavan there was no minister with him and the camp office wore a deserted look.

Those who attended the meeting with Kiran on Wednesday morning said he did not give any indication of floating a new party and was evasive on the issue. Tadepalligudem MLA Eli Nani said that he would decide his next course of action after consulting his supporters.