Former chief minister Nedurumalli Janardhan Reddy on Monday reportedly had no kind words to say about Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy during his meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi to brief her about the latest political situation in the state.
According to highly placed sources, Mr Janardhan Reddy told Ms Sonia Gandhi that Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy was taking decisions unilaterally and was disregarding the advice of senior leaders.
Talking to media persons after his meeting with Ms Sonia Gandhi, the former chief minister stated that he had informed her over the developments in the state after the defeat of Congress candidates DL Ravindra Reddy and YS Vivekananda Reddy in the by-elections for the Kadapa Parliamentary and Pulivendula Assembly constituencies.
Mr Janardhan Reddy further revealed that he had informed Ms Sonia Gandhi over the uncertain political situation after the outcome of by-election results and appealed her to take necessary steps to strengthen the party at grassroots level.
Highly placed sources say that the former chief minister not only expressed his strong displeasure over Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy’s style of functioning, but also complained that the Chief Minister was not following the tradition of taking advice of senior leaders and acting unilaterally.
The sources say that Mr Janardhan Reddy also discussed the filling up of nominated posts.
However, Mr Janardhan Reddy did not talk about this during his interaction with the press. He however vowed that he would continue as an integrationist till his last breath, when asked.
Mr Janardhan Reddy further stated that it was not necessary that the post of Pradesh Congress Committee president should go to a leader from Telangana region as the Chief Minister belongs to Seemandhra regions. “There is no such tradition,” he said.
He also added that the High Command would take a decision Deputy Chief Minister post ‘soon.’
He had met the All India Congress president as part of the High Command’s efforts to elicit opinion about the party position in the state. The High Command has already set in motion a process to streamline the Congress party in Andhra Pradesh and the regular meeting of senior leaders from Andhra Pradesh is part of this process. As part of these measures, the High Command has already replaced Mr Veerappa Moily with Ghulam Nabi Azad as the state In-Charge of Party Affairs