The fiasco of Andhra Pradesh agriculture minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy’s so-called review meeting with officials at Secretariat on Tuesday landed Telugu Desam Party president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu in an embarrassing position.
Somireddy, who called for a review meeting with officials of the agriculture department to review the position of the standing crops in the wake of impending cyclone, turned out to be a big flop, as none of the officials turned up at the meeting, though they were informed of it well in advance.
Somireddy was greeted with empty chairs at the meeting hall, leaving him red-faced.
Obviously, instructions from new chief secretary L V Subrahmanyam had gone to them not to attend the review meetings of the ministers including that of chief minister in view of the model code of conduct in force.
Agriculture special secretary Rajasekhar and special commissioner Muralidhar Reddy, too, did not attend the meeting and minister left the place in huff after waiting for nearly for three hours.
The officials have skipped another meeting of Somireddy on Wednesday, too.
Last week, Somireddy dared that he would resign to the ministry post if his review meeting was objected to.
Now that officials have skipped his meeting, it remains to be seen whether Somireddy will continue in the cabinet or not. Sources said he was preparing to quit the post.
In any case, Somireddy will lose his post after May 23, when the new government is formed. If the TDP comes back to power and Somireddy wins his Sarvepalli seat, there are chances that he will get back his cabinet berth.
But if the opposition YSR Congress party wins the elections, it will be the end of road for Somireddy!