AP Government’s media adviser Parakala Prabhakar gave a rude shock to Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday. Prabhakar had sent his resignation letter to the Chief Minister.
The resignation was much anticipated particularly after the Telugu Desam Party broke alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party. Chandrababu Naidu had gone one step forward by appointing M Group representative, a corporate PR consulting agency, as government advisor and had introduced the representative to the senior IAS and IPS officers at the last month’s Collectors Conference. Since then, Parakala was kept aside by Chandrababu Naidu, the sources said.
Chandrababu Naidu had hand-picked Parakala Prabhakar in 2014 expecting that he would build better coordination with the BJP as Prabhakar’s wife Nirmala Sitaraman was made a Cabinet Minister in the Modi government. But, Parakala was never found to be helpful that way for Chandrababu Naidu, even at a time when the Chief Minister himself was in trouble and was not getting interview from Narendra Modi.
Chandrababu Naidu felt that Parakala Prabhakar’s intervention would have got him an audience with Narendra Modi that would have averted his break-up with the BJP. Since then, Chandrababu Naidu was keeping Prabhakar at distance and had finally appointed a corporate company representative as his adviser. This development had finally led to Prabhakar calling it a day and putting in his papers.
However, the TDP ranks and the government sources attribute Prabhakar’s resignation to the comments of Jaganmohan Reddy, who found fault with Chandrababu Naidu for keeping BJP Minister’s husband as advisor and another BJP Minister’s wife as TTD Board member. Jaganmohan Reddy made these comments in replying to the TDP’s criticism against the YSR Congress accusing Jaganmohan Reddy having a secret understanding with Narendra Modi and BJP leaders. To disprove their charge, Jaganmohan Reddy had quoted the continuation of Parakala as adviser and BJP’ Minister’s wife as TTD member.