Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy has placated Congress leader and former minister M Satyanarayana Rao, who is known for making controversial statements, by making him chairman of the state-owned Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation with the rank of cabinet minister.

Satyanarayana Rao, popularly known as MSR, assumed charge of his post at the RTC corporate office on Wednesday morning, amidst chanting of Vedic mantras by purohits.

The appointment of MSR to the sinecure has raised eyebrows in the ruling Congress since the veteran leader had embarrassed the party high command and the chief minister by claiming that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh [Images] had told him that YSR Reddy was the main obstacle to the formation of a separate Telangana state.

He had further contended that a Telangana state would not be formed as long as YSR Reddy remained in power. It came as a greater surprise to political observers as MSR was lobbying for a gubernatorial post.

This is the second stint for MSR as APSRTC chairman. He earlier held the post for two successive terms from 1990 to 1994. A three-term MP and former Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president for three years, he was elected to the assembly from the Karimnagar segment in 2004 and became a minister in YSR cabinet.

He quit as minister in December 2006 after the Congress faced a debacle in the Lok Sabha bypoll in Karimnagar as Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrasekhar Rao retained the seat with a record majority of two lakh votes.

Speaking after assuming charge as RTC chairman, MSR said his pro-Telangana utterances had nothing to do with his present appointment. He claimed that he still stood by his views on a Telangana state, but his focus now would be to ensure that the RTC functioned as a viable public sector undertaking.

Stating that Telugu mega star Chiranjeevi [Images] was free to enter politics like any other citizen, he invited him to join the Congress. He recalled how the late N T Rama Rao formed the Telugu Desam Party in the early 1980s at the peak of his cinematic career and how former actress Jayaprada joined politics and was elected to the Lok Sabha on a Samajwadi Party ticket from Uttar Pradesh.