JOIN USThe six ministers stayed back in New Delhi and chose to skip the meeting even as four other Telangana ministers, who also arrived at the national capital yesterday to meet Union ministers and senior congress leaders on the statehood issue, returned this morning just in time for the Cabinet meet.
Senior ministers K Jana Reddy, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Komati Reddi Venkat Reddy, D Sridhar Babu, P Sudhershan Reddy and Basuraj Saraiah were absent from the Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy.
This was the first time that so many ministers abstained from a Cabinet meeting for reasons other than official, government sources said.
Though its schedule was fixed more than a week ago, the Telangana ministers preferred to join their other colleagues in New Delhi and lobby for the statehood case.
Ministers D K Aruna, V Sunitha Lakshma Reddy, R Venkat Reddy and P Shanker Rao flew down from New Delhi today and attended the Cabinet meeting.