Congress questions BJP-TDP tussle

Senior leader of the Congress party, Renuka Chowdhury, on Thursday termed the rift between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its coalition partner Telugu Desam Party (TDP) as 'sabre-rattling', adding that if the TDP wanted they would have pulled out of the alliance.

"I don't understand what are they trying to do, it is sabre-rattling. What was the government doing till now? They are still pretending to withdraw and not doing it and just getting two ministers resign. It is unfortunate," said the Rajya Sabha MP, who comes from Andhra Pradesh.

Another Congress MP Ahmed Patel also hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his handling of the crisis, where the TDP is seeking Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh.

"It is very unfortunate that the Prime Minister couldn't take the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's phone call on such an important matter. This doesn't augur well for the interest of the people of Andhra Pradesh (sic)," Patel tweeted.

Earlier in the day, two BJP ministers in the Andhra state government submitted their resignations to Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's office, amid the deteriorating relations between the two parties.

State Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas and State endowment minister Pydikondala Manikyala Rao resigned from the Naidu cabinet following two TDP leaders leaving the union council of ministers.

On Wednesday, Chief Minister Naidu said he and his party have shown patience for the last four years, during which he tried to convince the Centre by all means.

"As a courtesy and being a responsible senior politician, I tried reaching out to Prime Minister to inform about our decision. He was unavailable," he added.