Vijayawada: Hindupur MLA Balakrishna has been severely criticised for sitting in the Chief Minister’s chair in the conference hall of the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) in the Velagapudi Secretariat on Wednesday.

He was at Secretariat to review matters pertaining to his constituency of Hindupur and plan the Lepakshi celebrations. The meeting was attended by water resources minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao,





Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is in Davos from January 21 to 25 to attend World Economic Forum meeting.

Generally, MLAs go to the chambers of various officials to discuss matters relating to developmental work in their constituencies. But Mr Balakrishna, who is related to the Chief Minister, told the officials to come to the CMO for the meeting and happily occupied the Chief Minister’s usual chair while the minister sat with the others.

His behaviour has become the subject of much discussion in the Secretariat.

A senior official said that he may be a brother-in-law of the Chief Minister, but it wasn’t appropriate for Mr Balakrishna to occupy the CM’s seat; it felt like he was insulting the CM’s position.

“Personal relationships should not intr-ude into official places, especially in the high positions in the state. Moreover, there are conference halls in every block and Mr Balakrishna could have chosen any of them instead of the one in the CMO.”

Another official, who participated in the meeting, said it was inappropriate that the minister should sit with them while Mr Balakrishna, a mere MLA, chaired the meeting from the CM’s seat. “We have never once seen Lokesh sitting that way despite being the Chief Mini-ster’s son and a minister himself,” the official said.

In the meeting, Mr Balakrishna directed officials to make the Lepakshi celebrations better than last year’s and instructed that cultural programmes should not be similar to last year’s. The CM will launch the programme on the first day, March 9, and Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu will attend the valedictory ceremony on March 10.