In a surprising development, Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has walked out of the cabinet meeting convened by him at the Velagapudi Secretariat on Wednesday.

Reason: One of the items listed on the agenda of the cabinet meeting was the recent High Court notices to the state government on giving exemption of entertainment tax to the Telugu film Gautami Putra Satakarni.

As soon as the item came up for discussion, Naidu quietly walked out of the meeting for some time, apparently to allay the apprehensions that he was influencing the cabinet. In any case, the cabinet approved the decision to grant tax exemption to GPS.

It may be mentioned that Naidu has granted tax exemption to the film without even taking the cabinet approval. This has led to the criticism that he was showing blatant nepotism towards his brother-in-law Nandamuri Balakrishna, the lead character in the film.

Interestingly, even the Telangana government has taken the decision to grant tax exemption to GPS. But only in the case of Naidu’s move, the rivals moved the high court which questioned the same for not following the rules.