Senior Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader from Telangana region Nagam Janardhana Reddy on Tuesday denied that there was any rift between him and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu over the separate statehood issue.
Talking to media persons at TDLP office on Assembly premises, Janardhana Reddy pointed out that a few over-zealous journalists had reported that he had attended an all-party meeting on the issue of recruitments to the sub-inspectors' posts on Monday without the permission of his party chief. He said that these reports were 'baseless and fabricated'.
Janardhana Reddy also stated that he had never taken any step without the knowledge and permission of his party chief, and had attended the all-party meeting with Naidu's consent.
The TDP leader's denial came in the wake of media reports of the widening rift between him and Naidu, partly because of Reddy's staunch pro-Telangana stance.
It may be mentioned here that though Janardhana Reddy has been leading the Telangana protagonists in the TDP, he was not named in the list of representatives from the party which attended the conclave held on January 5th, 2010, soon after Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's famous statement on the issue of Telangana on December 9th, 2009.
The conclave led to the centre announcing the formation of Srikrishna Commission, and is seen as one of the major steps on the road to Telangana.
Meanwhile, TDP sources maintain that Janardhana Reddy's avowedly pro-Telangana stance is not welcomed by the party president, at least in private.
Janardhana Reddy, during his interaction with the press on Tuesday, maintained that he had cordial relations with all political leaders across the political spectrum, especially those from Telangana.