Rosaiah announces his decision to resign in Hyderabad on Wednesday. (PTI)

Hyderabad, Nov. 24: In office for more than a year, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Konijeti Rosaiah, 78, could never erase the impression that he was only a temp.

Rosaiah took over on September 3, 2009, after YSR’s death in a crash but did not occupy the chief minister’s block in the secretariat or the official bungalow and camp office for months, expecting to be replaced.

“I have always been a soldier all along. I cannot become a commander overnight,” Rosaiah had said after completing one year in office.

This possibly best explains his exit although, as he told reporters today, he had “not annoyed anyone”.

After 25 years in power — and another 25 in the Opposition — in which he presented 12 budgets and four interim budgets as finance minister, Rosaiah had no following of his own. That he did not belong to any powerful caste group was a reason, but he did not come across as a leader either.

“Unlike YSR, I do not have trusted lieutenants to handle the political and administrative affairs separately,” he himself admitted.

Rosaiah often said that neither the Telangana nor the Jagan issue — the two big problems for his government — bothered him because both were handled directly by the party high command. The Srikrishna Committee had been set up on Telangana and YSR’s rebel son was being handled by AICC leader Veerappa Moily.

Jagan’s supporters had targeted him on many occasions for accepting the chief minister’s post, which they felt should have gone to YSR’s son.

In private, the chief minister often expressed exasperation that ministers and even officials defied him. “Files do not come to me, officials do not bother to inform me of updates,” he would say.

Officials complained that “Rosaiah hardly can write any notes on files and all we get is his verbal nod or indication”.

Resigning after 14 months and 21 days in the top job, he told reporters today he had “nothing to regret as his assignment was to hold the party and government together till the high command took a decision on Andhra Pradesh”.

“I came as chief minister only with the blessings of Sonia Gandhi and the Congress Working Committee and have not annoyed anyone, including partymen and officials,” Rosaiah said. He cited “advanced age” as a reason for handing his resignation.

Rosaiah had undergone a heart bypass surgery, had hearing problems and suffered severe joint pains but the six-footer always appeared a cut above the others.

It had taken him four months to enter the chief minister’s chambers in the secretariat and another four months to take over the sprawling bungalow in Begumpet that served as the camp office.

Rosaiah also allowed YSR’s son Jaganmohan Reddy to stay put in the chief minister’s residence — a 12-room house behind the camp office — till March.

The camp office and the residence were built at a cost of around Rs 25 crore during YSR’s regime.

For the past four months, Rosaiah was showing bouts of unhappiness, intolerance and impatience mainly because he was not allowed to expand or reshape his cabinet by the high command which feared that a shuffle would divide the party.

Only five months ago, he was finally allowed to choose the secretaries and advisers in the chief minister’s office.

One adviser — a retired IAS officer — quit in a huff last month, unable to bear the chief minister’s moods.

It seems Rosaiah saw his exit coming over the past few months and he went out of his way to show his loyalty to the high command.

He violated prohibitory orders to sit on dharna against RSS chief Sudarshan, who had spoken against Sonia Gandhi. When a TV channel owned by Jagan criticised the party president, he issued a signed news release exhorting his loyalty to Sonia.

In the end, nothing worked, not even the blessings of Sathya Saibaba of Puttaparthi. Like Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, Rosaiah too was at Puttaparthi two days ago.