Hyderabad, Oct 29 (IANS) Unhappy over the Congress party’s decision not to make Y.S.Jaganmohan Reddy the Andhra Pradesh chief minister, state Women Development and Child Welfare Minister Konda Surekha resigned from the cabinet Thursday night.
Surekha submitted a six-page resignation letter to Governor N. D. Tiwari at Raj Bhavan.

“It was unfortunate that the high command has believed a few so-called seniors and denied the chief minister post to Jaganmohan Reddy, without showing any regard to the people’s wishes,” she said.

“At least now, the high command should realise its mistake and make Jaganmohan Reddy the CM. That does not mean I am defying the high command. I will leave it to the high command to take a decision on Jaganmohan Reddy, under whose leadership I will continue to work. I hope my decision will help him,” she added.

The Congress central leadership recently conveyed to Jaganmohan Reddy that it would let K. Rosaiah continue as the chief minister.

After meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi last week, Jaganmohan said that it was not important for him to become the chief minister at this juncture but he was ready to take up the responsibility in future.

Ever since the death of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash last month, Surekha demanding that his son and Kadapa MP Jaganmohan Reddy be made the chief minister.

The minister told reporters that it was her personal decision and she had not informed anyone, including Jaganmohan Reddy, till the last moment.

“I discussed it only with my husband and MLC (member of legislative council) Konda Murali. I apologise to Jaganmohan Reddy, if my resignation embarrasses him,” she said.

She said she did not intend to hurt anybody, but took the decision only because of her conscience.

“Right from the beginning, I have been telling that I would resign from the cabinet after the CLP (Congress legislature party) meeting. But, a section of media has distorted my statement, saying that I have backtracked on my earlier statement,” she said.

She expressed her anguish that the CLP meeting was not held even after two months to pay homage to Rajasekhara Reddy.

Surekha made an indirect attack on former central government minister Renuka Choudhary for trying to defame Jaganmohan Reddy.

Without naming her, Surekha said a woman leader who had defected from the Telugu Desam Party and become a central government minister, along with a couple of newspapers and a section of Congress leaders, launched a campaign to defame Jaganmohan Reddy and conspired to see that he did not become the chief minister.