In an attempt to garner support for united Andhra YSR Congress Party chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy met Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Friday emphasizing that bill for creation of Telangana was illegal.
The meeting between Reddy and Yadav continued for about 20 minutes. While the Andhra Pradesh leader was accompanied by his party leaders, the UP CM was assisted by state jail minister Rajendra Chaudhury and Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani.
Samajwadi party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav was not present in the meeting as he was away in New Delhi attending Parliament.
later talking to media persons Reddy said that Samajwadi Party has given its full support on united Andhra Pradesh. '' I am going to different parts of the country and so far had met Ms Jayalalitha, Naveen Patnaik, Mamta Banerjee and others senior leaders of different political parties seeking support for united AP,'' he said.
Reddy said that the Bill for creation of Telangana state was illegal as no consent was taken from the AP State Assembly before UPA tabled the Bill.
When he was asked about his appreciation of BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi, Reddy said: "I appreciated Modi when he spoke against division of AP. My ultimate goal is to block division of Andhra Pradesh.''
Yadav too claimed that the talks with Reddy were fruitful.
''Samajwadi Party has always opposed creation of small states and thus against division of Andhra Pradesh,'' Yadav said. "Creation of small states always adds to the political woes. Uttarakhand has been created but still we are facing the birth pangs," he said.
Yadav also hinted at a long political association with Reddy saying today we talked about division of Andhra Pradesh but we will have a long political association too. The YSR Congress president has been vehemently opposing the Centre's proposal to carve out a separate Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh.