The congress high command seems to have dropped Mr A Sai Pratap from the Central Cabinet for the simple reason that he did nothing politically to prevent the YSR Congress president YS Jaganmohan reddy from emerging as a power centre in the state politics. Both of them belonged to the Rayalaseema area.

Sources said that the central leadership has intentionally decided not to give any representation to the Rayalaseema area as it was dominated by the supporters of Jagan. The high command has now picked up Mr Kishore Chandra Dev who was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Araku constituency in the north coastal AP.

The state now has representation of four ministers, three from coastal AP and one from the Telangana area. While Kishore Chandra Dev, Panabaka Lakshmi and Daggubati Purandhareswari are from coastal AP, Jaipal reddy belongs to the Telangana area. The Rayalaseema area has no representation now in the Union cabinet.

Meanwhile, Sai Pratap said in Hyderabad that he would continue in the congress party despite his being dropped from the cabinet.