Hyderabad, February 01: Defence Minister A K Antony met Praja Rajyam Party president K Chiranjeevi here on Monday evening to invite him for a meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, triggering speculation in political circles.
“The Defence Minister met our party president Chiranjeevi on behalf of the Congress party to extend an invitation to visit New Delhi to meet AICC President Sonia Gandhi to further strengthen the relationship (between the two parties) and work together to serve the interests of the nation and Andhra Pradesh in particular,” PRP Political Affairs Committee member C Ramachandraiah said, reading out a statement at the end of the 50-minute meeting.
Chiranjeevi, he said, accepted the invitation.
“We (PRP leaders) will meet and decide the date soon,” the former MP said.
Anonty, however, did not speak to the waiting mediapersons.
Antony, who came to Hyderabad on a private visit, drove to Chiranjeevi’s Jubilee Hills residence in the company of Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president D Srinivas.
There was intense speculation if Antony had come come to persuade Chiranjeevi to join the Kiran Kumar Reddy government. Three slots in the state cabinet have been kept vacant. Chiranjeevi has, however, been maintaining that his party was not in a hurry to join the government. He also made it clear that PRP would support the Congress government in case it fell short of numbers “only in public interest.”
Ramachandraiah “they discussed the political situation in the state but nothing was discussed about joining the cabinet”.
PRP has 18 MLAs but two of them have joined former Congress leader Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s camp while two others from Telangana have virtually deserted the party on the statehood issue.
-PTI