Kiran looking for personal mileage, say Cong loyalists

 Even as the UPA government is inching closer for the division of the state, Seemandhra ministers are speaking in different voices on the issue of the chief minister resigning and floating a new party.

In an effort to pre-empt the chief minister's move to launch a new political outfit, APCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana huddled with a few Seemandhra ministers opposing the chief minister’s political ambitions at Botsa’s official residence on Monday.

Several MLAs and MLCs also attended the meeting. The meeting was arranged to send a strong signal to the chief minister’s loyalist ministers not to take a hasty decision and jump into Kiran’s bandwagon.

Ministers sailing with the chief minister, Ganta Srinivasa Rao, T G Venkatesh, Erasu Pratap Reddy, Pithani Satyanarayana, Shatrucharla V Raju and S Sailajanath stayed away from the meeting.

Out of the 91 Seemandhra MLAs, three have already defected to the YSRC and three announced that they are quitting the party for bifurcating the state.