His Principal Secretary B Sam Bob and the head of Chief Minister's Security Group (CMSG) Sashidhar Reddy were also supposed to accompany Rosaiah on the flight but all the three were kept on the wait list by Kingfisher airlines. "The Kingfisher Airlines staff refused to let the Chief Minister and his aides take the flight without confirmed tickets, official sources in the Chief Minister's Office said.
This left the Chittoor district officials as well as the CMSG personnel in a tizzy. Interestingly, Union Minister for Urban Development S Jaipal Reddy, his deputy Kumari Selja, several state ministers, a few MPs and their personal staff were also on the same flight.
They all were returning to Hyderabad after attending the marriage of Tirupati MP Chinta Mohan's daughter. "Luckily, two personal staff members of the political leaders were on the same flight. They agreed to cancel their journey and let the Chief Minister fly back to Hyderabad," the official told PTI.
As only two seats were available onboard the 50-seat ATR flight, Rosaiah and Sam Bob boarded the 8.30 am flight and reached Hyderabad in time to attend a function at Abdullapurmet on the outskirts of the state capital, along with Reddy and Selja. Jaipal Reddy, Selja and others had booked their tickets in advance and hence faced no problem. The Chief Minister's Tirupati tour was fixed only two days ago and as such he could not get confirmed tickets for his return journey, the CMO official said.
Rosaiah, incidentally, faced a similar problem on August 2 while returning from New Delhi.
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