Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy who is already under fire for his inability to control his Cabinet colleagues from infighting faced a fresh challenge on Tuesday as Minister for Endowments J Krishna Rao resigned late in the evening. Rao,who insisted on taking out a padyatra through Telangana districts in support of a separate state,was at loggerheads with his Cabinet colleague and Minister for Information and Public Relations D K Aruna as well as the Chief Minister who was opposing the move. Rao said he was frustrated by the state governments efforts to scuttle his padyatra schedule in favour of Telangana and thus was resigning. Reddy has dismissed the resignation as the result of an ego tussle between him and Aruna and expressed confidence that both will see reason and stop fighting. Rao caused a stir on Tuesday evening,driving to Governor E S L Narasimhans house in a long convoy after informing the media that he was resigning. I promised families of students who gave up their lives for Telangana and agitating students of Osmania University that I would resign if the state and Centre do not accept Telangana demand immediately. It appears that the Congress is not taking it seriously. I had sent my resignation to Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on March 10 warning that if they did not take a decision on Telangana I will take definite action, Rao told mediapersons after submitting his resignation to the Governor. But there are few takers for Raos explanation to resign. Since April 25,Rao and Aruna were at loggerheads with the former deciding to take a padyatra in favour of Telangana in Mahbubnagar district and the latter refusing to allow him to tread into her constituency. Both ministers hail from Mahbubnagar district and Rao had started a padyatra in the district in support of Telangana. However,Aruna who hails from Gadwal constituency refused to allow Rao onto her turf saying that Rao was just seeking publicity and promoting himself. She let her followers and supporters disrupt Raos plans to enter into Gadwal constituency on Saturday. Rao said now he had resigned and no one could prevent him from taking out his padyatra.
