Hyderabad: Kiran Kumar Reddy will be the new Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh after incumbent K Rosaiah resigned Wednesday in a surprise move as the ruling Congress
battles dissidence and prepares to tackle the potentially
volatile issue of a separate Telangana state.
On a day of fast-paced developments, 77-year-old
Rosaiah, the stop-gap Chief Minister who took over in the
aftermath of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's death in September last
year, resigned citing personal reasons.
Hours later, the Congress Legislature Party met and
authorised party chief Sonia Gandhi, who named Kiran Reddy,
currently Speaker of the Assembly, to succeed Rosaiah.
50-year-old Reddy hails from Rayalaseema region and
was elected from Pileru constituency in Chittoor district.
After a brief meeting of the CLP, which authorised
Gandhi to choose the new Chief Minister, top Congress
emissaries Pranab Mukherjee, A K Antony, Veerappa Moily and
Ghulam Nabi Azad met and discussed the issue with the Congress
President.
"Congress President Smt. Sonia Gandhi has selected
Kiran Kumar Reddy as the new leader of the Congress
Legislature Party. He will be sworn-in tomorrow by the
Governor as the new Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh,"
Mukherjee said in a brief statement.
Out of the 156 Congress MLAs, over 140 MLAs attended
today's meeting and they unanimously passed a resolution
authorising Sonia Gandhi.
At the meeting, a woman MLA Konda Sureka, a supporter
of belligerent Congress MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, got up to
raise the leadership issue but was persuaded not to do so.
Andhra to have Deputy CM
Andhra Pradesh will have a Deputy
Chief Minister from Telangana region.
Law Minister M Veerappa Moily, who was one of the
observers for the Congress Legislature Party meeting here
today, said "the Congress President has decided that Andhra
Pradesh will have a Deputy Chief Minister from the Telangana
region".
The name for the post will be decided later, he said.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, on being authorized by
CLP, has chosen Speaker Kiran Kumar Reddy to be the state's
new Chief Minister.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, November 25, 2010, 09:06