The absence of newly-appointed Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party president G Kishan Reddy at the Union cabinet meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday led to a lot of speculations.
Some BJP leaders said Kishan Reddy had resigned from the cabinet after his appointment as the BJP chief. Others said he was terribly upset for being chosen for the state post, as he was expecting a much bigger post at the national level, including the national BJP chief.
But on Wednesday, Kishan Reddy gave a clarification to the media on his absence. He said he could not attend the cabinet meeting only because he was not well. He clarified that he had not resigned from the cabinet.
However, he had no explanation how he attended the Alluri Sitarama Raju event in Hyderabad along with President of India Droupadi Murmu and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, if he was unwell.
Kishan Reddy said he was not upset with the new assignment.
“I am a trusted soldier of the party and I will accept whatever assignment the party would give me. I did not expect that I would be made the state BJP chief,” he said.
He said he had not asked the party high command for any post or position.
“I shall try my best to bring the BJP to power in Telangana. I shall follow whatever direction the party would give me in this journey,” he added.
Kishan Reddy announced that he would take over as the Telangana BJP chief after the public meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Warangal on Saturday. He asked all the party leaders to make the meeting a grand success.
“As far as my position as a Union Minister is concerned, I will follow whatever the party decides," he said.