Chief Minister Kirankumar reddy had rejected the resignation of agriculture minister YS Vivekananda reddy and asked him to continue in office. “I have not accepted Viveka’s resignation and he will continue in his post,” Kiran told journalists Wednesday evening.

Viveka left for Delhi after submitting his resignation. “There is no point in continuing as minister when I am going to face the bye elections,” he told a media conference before he left for Delhi on Wednesday.

Congress party sources said that Vivekananda Reddy is likely to contest the by-election from Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency for which the Election Commission has already announced the poll schedule.

TDP leader G Muddukrishnama Naidu, who was attacked by the minister on Monday in the assembly, told another media conference that the resignation is only an election stunt to gain sympathy in the coming bye poll.

“Even the attack on me and my colleague in the assembly on Monday is only part of the election stunt enacted by the congress party. Viveka wants to prove that he was the political heir of the late YSR,” he said.