Union minister for petroleum and natural gas S Jaipal Reddy has become a loner with none of the party MPs and fellow union ministers from the state coming to his rescue in connection with the alleged injustice done to the state in diversion of natural gas from KG basin to Ratnagiri in Maharashtra.

At a time when the opposition parties and also the ruling party leaders have been targeting him for keeping silent when injustice was being meted out to Andhra in the gas allocation, Jaipal Reddy has not received support from any of his colleagues in the central cabinet whether it was Kishore Chandra Deo, Panabaka Lakshmi, M M Pallamraju or D Purandeshwari. Even the party MPs are going hammer and tongs against him.

As a result, Jaipal Reddy is forced to defend himself. “I cannot say whether injustice was meted out to the state due to the decision take by the empowered committee in 2008. But I have been helping the state in various other ways. In fact, I am being blamed for being pro-Andhra Pradesh. Unfortunately, my own party MPs are attacking me and I don’t blame them,” he said.

The union minister said he was expecting a positive decision in favour of Andhra in gas allocation, as he was negotiating with the colleagues to rectify the injustice.