TDP pulls out ministers from Centre

The ruling NDA coalition ran into rough weather on Thursday with two TDP ministers resigning from the Union Council of Ministers.

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju and Minister of State for Science and Technology Y S Chowdary submitted their resignations within an hour after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu conveyed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi the reasons for pulling them out over the phone.

"The prime minister said it (resignations) was unfortunate," Chowdary told reporters.

However, the TDP stopped short of quitting the ruling coalition or even criticising Modi for failing to meet the expectations of the people of Andhra Pradesh.

"I don't think it's fair on our part to expect the prime minister to deal with these issues. It is for the ministries concerned to take up... already a considerable amount of time has lapsed," Chowdary said when asked whether Modi held out any assurance of meeting the TDP's demands.

The ministers said the TDP and Naidu were expecting a "little bit of extra hand-holding" from the Centre as Andhra Pradesh went about re-establishing itself after Telangana was carved out as a separate state in 2014.

Chowdary said the "special category status" was an "emotional and sentimental issue" and the step taken by the TDP was a reflection of the voice of the people of Andhra Pradesh.

Naidu had announced his decision to pull out ministers from the Union government on Wednesday night after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley ruled out granting special category status to Andhra Pradesh.

TDP is the second major NDA constituent after the Shiv Sena to voice its anguish against the Modi government.

In January, Sena president Uddhav Thackeray said that his party would go it alone in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Earlier, Swabhimani Paksha of Raju Shetti, a Lok Sabha MP from Hatkanangle in Maharashtra, quit the NDA over the Modi government's "apathy" towards farmers.

There have been murmurs within smaller parties in Bihar, the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party and former chief minister Jiten Ram Manjhi-led Hindustan Awam Morcha, as the BJP looked to expand its influence in the state.