Hyderabad:
K Rosaiah just completed a year in office as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.
A year during which he faced the worst political challenges in the state.
But instead of celebrating the occasion, a bout of illness has forced the chief minister to miss or cancel most of his engagements, resulting in speculation about a change of guard in political circles.
The Chief Minister expressed his anguish at missing out on participating in the functions to observe YSR's first death anniversary on September 2.
``Due to my ill-health, I could not attend the functions on YSR's anniversary. I am very pained by this,'' said the convalescing chief minister.
Fever had forced Rosaiah to cancel his trip to Tirupati the previous day as well, when the prime minister had come to lay the foundation stone of a power equipment project.
It was because of his ill-health that YSR let Rosaiah become an MLC, instead of contesting the assembly elections last year.
``During the election period, YSR was very particular that unless it was a very important meeting, I shouldn't go. He would ask me to sit in Hyderabad and concentrate on administration,'' clarified Rosaiah.
77-year old Rosaiah is a diabetic who underwent a bypass surgery three years ago.
Though the chief minister played the host at his Iftar party on Friday; all engagements and meetings for next week have been cancelled.
The opposition was quick to find fault with the government.
``Practically there is no government in Andhra Pradesh," bellowed TDP leader N Janardhan Reddy.
This week, in Rosaiah's absence, tourism minister Geeta Reddy was summoned twice to Delhi within 24 hours, leading to speculation about a possible change of guard in Hyderabad or Rosaiah getting a deputy CM.
The report on Telangana is to be submitted by the end of the year and with the Jagan issue still unresolved, the political air in Andhra Pradesh is abuzz with speculation.