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TDP ministers quit Modi cabinet despite PM-Naidu phone call

TDP MP's protest in front of Mahatma Gandhi's statue at Parliament House TDP MPs protest in front of Mahatma Gandhi's statue at Parliament House | PTI

Two Telugu Desam Party ministers in the NDA government at the Centre submitted their resignations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday evening.

Civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju and minister of state for science and technology Y.S. Chowdary submitted their resignation after they met Modi in Delhi.

Meanwhile, Modi spoke to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, a day after the TDP chief decided to pull out of the NDA government at the Centre.

In a late night development on Wednesday, the TDP had announced its decision to pull out its ministers from the NDA government.

Earlier, Chowdary said he and his colleague Ashok Gajapathi Raju were stepping down as ministers as it was necessitated by "unavoidable circumstances" but the party would continue to be part of the NDA.

Likening the decision to an unfortunate divorce, Chowdary said he and Raju, Union civil aviation minister, would continue to work as parliamentarians for Andhra Pradesh.

"We will be happy when marriages happen, not when divorces happen. It is not a good move, but unfortunately due to unavoidable circumstances we had to take this move. We are stepping down as ministers, but our president has said we will be continuing as part of NDA," Chowdhary told reporters.

The beauty of democracy, he said, was to bring unanimity and make everyone happy and this was the BJP's responsibility.

The TDP has 16 MPs in the Lok Sabha.

Naidu had said on Wednesday that the TDP joined the NDA government only to protect the interests of Andhra Pradesh following its bifurcation but claimed the Centre was taking unilateral decisions without thinking about solutions to the state's problems.

With inputs from agencies