Andhra Pradesh Congress minister quits over bifurcation issue

HYDERABAD: In a setback to the ruling Congress in coastal Andhra, state Infrastructure and Investment Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao today quit his post and the party in protest against the Centre going ahead with state's division.

"The decision (regarding division) was taken against people's wishes and Delhi elders are trying to get the Bill passed. A national policy or procedure like appointing state's reorganisation commission, judicial commission or assembly resolution should have been followed for division. None of these is followed," he said.

A former MP, Rao alleged that the Centre is going ahead with the division of the state disregarding the rejection of the Telangana bill in Legislative Assembly and the Chief Minister's sit-in in Delhi.

Rao also accused the central leadership of not keeping its word on several occasions like A K Antony not visiting Andhra Pradesh and GoM not taking the suggestions it received through emails and the amendments moved in the Assembly.

Rao, an influential leader in north coastal Andhra, was elected in 2009 from Anakapalle in Visakhapatnam district, on the ticket of Chiranjeevi's Praja Rajyam, which later merged with Congress.

Several Congress MLAs in the coastal region had quit the party in recent times, a trend which is only expected to gather momentum in the coming days.

Some of the MLAs, who quit Congress include Aadala Prabhakar Reddy, Bandaru Satyananda Rao, Sridhar Krishna Reddy, Dharmana Prasada Rao, T Vijay Kumar and R Suryaprakasa Rao.