Andhra Pradesh CM Rosaiah resigns

NEW DELHI - Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah resigned on Wednesday, paving the way for a new incumbent.

Rosaiah told reporters here that he would submit his resignation to state Governor ESL Narasimhan.

“I have done my best as the Chief Minister of the state. No one asked for my resignation, it’s my own call.” “I urge my successor to keep Andhra Pradesh Congress together,” he said.

Following the resignation, senior Congress leaders Pranab Mukherjee and Veerappa Moily have been asked by Congress President Sonia Gandhi to go to Hyderabad to take stock of situation in the state as observers.

Congress sources in Delhi said that the front runners for chief minister are Union Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy and the Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh State Assembly Kiran Kumar Reddy.

However, there is a view in certain sections of the party that Kiran Kumar Reddy stands a better chance than S. Jaipal Reddy, in the wake of the controversy generated by the latter’s flip-flop during the XIXth Commonwealth Games.

There is also a view in party circles that “a Reddy” is required at the helm of affairs in Andhra Pradesh to counter the challenge posed to the party leadership by Kadapa MP Jaganmohan Reddy.

While Moily has already arrived in Hyderabad, Mukherjee is expected to leave for the Andhra Pradesh capital at 5. p.m.

Mukherjee and Moily will meet Congress MLAs in Hyderabad. A formal resolution praising Sonia Gandhi is expected to be announced, along with a strongly-worded condemnation of the show broadcast by Jaganmohan Reddy’s Sakshi Television channel.

The channel had telecast a “highly obnoxious” programme criticising party president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Rosaiah decision to resign came a day after he visited New Delhi for consultations with senior Congress leaders, including Moily, Defence Minister A.K. Antony and Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel. (ANI)