Defence Minister AK Antony, who met Praja Rajyam Party president K Chiranjeevi on Monday in his capacity as special representative of the Congress High Command has raised much dust in the political quarters.
The dust has been further raked up by the ever hungry media and this was reflected at a press conference by Minister Botsa Satyanarayana at the Secretariat on Tuesday.
Mr Satyanarayana was asked to reply whether it lowered the prestige of the Union Defence Minister by calling on the PRP chief at his residence.
The Minister replied in the negative. He quoted several examples wherein leaders visited people at
their places disregarding their status. There is nothing wrong in Mr Antony calling on the PRP chief at his residence, said the Minister.
So also it is a continuous process in the politics that a party forming alliance with another was not uncommon, Mr Satyanarayana added.
He reminded that earlier, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi was a Congress ally after 2004 polls. Going by the same yardstick, if the PRP formed an alliance with Congress what is wrong, Mr Satyanarayana countered.
Asked about the regional differences the proposed alliance might provoke, the Minister said that leaders belonging to respective regions certainly spoke in support of their region's interests.
Even so did Ministers or MPs or MLAs, he averred.