Monday, July 4 2005 15:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Hyderabad: Five Telengana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) Ministers today (July 4, 2005) pulled out of the Congress-led coalition Government in Andhra Pradesh climaxing serious differences between the two parties on handling naxalite problem and the separate statehood demand but one party Minister refused to quit.

Four Ministers--T Harish Rao, A Chandrasekhar, Capt Lakshminkanta Rao and Vijayarama Rao--met Governor Sushil Kumar Shinde and submitted their papers this morning while N Narasimha Murthy faxed his resignation from the US, where he had gone to attend a Telugu Association meeting.

However, S Santosh Reddy defied the party difrective saying he was not party to a "unilateral" decision to quit the Cabinet.

It was not clear immediately whether TRS was also withdrawing its support to the Rajasekhara Reddy Government, which has a majority on the basis of Congress' own 181 MLAs in the 294 member Assembly.

TRS, which has five members in the Lok Sabha and two Ministers at the Centre--party chief K Chandrasekhara Rao and A Narendra--fought the elections in alliance with Congress in the last year's Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

The TRS decision to pull out of the Andhra Pradesh Government after Chandrasekhara Rao held discussions with his party colleagues in Delhi yesterday in the wake of continuing threats from naxalites asking TRS Ministers to resign or face bullets.