Is the Praja Rajyam Party joining N Kiran Kumar Reddy government? As the chief minister is preparing to leave for Delhi to get approval for his team of cabinet members, political circles are agog with excitement over the possibility of the PRP joining the government.
The PRP sources confirm the Congress requesting them to join the government but they say the party has not yet taken any decision.
“The Congress has sounded us in the past. It wanted us to join the government. But we have to think of the pros and cons. Of the party losing its identity and the possibility of the move getting misunderstood as indicative of future merger,” a source said.
When Chiranjeevi and his party leaders met Kiran Kumar Reddy yesterday ostensibly to congratulate him on his appointment as the chief minister, there was speculation that a deal had been struck.
If the PRP had to join the government it should be given at least six berths to compensate for any damage the party might suffer in the eyes of the people for joining the government.
As the chief minister is leaving for Delhi tomorrow, sources said it has now more or less been decided that the RPP would join the government if the offer of berths is to its satisfaction.
But PRP leaders dismiss the news that they had clinched a deal with the Congress as baseless.
“There was no such thing. We had offered to support the Congress in case of any turbulence to prevent mid-term elections. We stand by it even now. Nothing more has happened since,” party senior leader K Vidyadhara Rao said.
