Visakhapatnam: A day after tribal welfare minister P. Balaraju launched a tirade against Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy for ignoring him, ports and infrastructure minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, on Tuesday, batted for Reddy.
Rao said there was no truth in Balaraju’s claim that he was not invited for the chief minister’s programme. The tribal welfare minister was informed and invited four days in advance to the Rachchabanda programme in Chodavaram.
Bickerings in the Congress in Visakhapatnam district came to the fore again with Balaraju’s diatribe against the chief minister for allegedly favouring his archrival, ports and infrastructure minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao.
Though Balaraju has not taken Ganta Srinivasa Rao’s name at the press conference held at Hyderabad on Monday, wherein he charged the chief minister with ‘illtreatment’ and ‘discrimination’ against him, it is seen as indirect reference to the proximity Rao and Reddy enjoy.
“There is no truth in his (Balaraju’s) claims that he was not informed or invited for Rachchabanda programme held at Chodavaram. I was told by the district officials that the minister was informed in advance about the programme,” Ganta Srinivas Rao told mediapersons here on Tuesday.
Rivalry between the two state cabinet ministers, hailing from Vizag, was exposed very recently, on November 8, when both of them held review meetings separately with the district officials on the same subject.
Rao and Balaraju never see eye to eye. It is rare to see them together at any programme. Balaraju had even skipped Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy’s programmes in the district last month twice.
The minister was also absent from Rachabanda programme in Chodavaram on November 15, in which Rao was seen taking part actively. Both had differed on many issues from merger of Bheemili and Anakapalle muncipalities.
