Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister KE Krishnamurthy on Wednesday threatened to kill himself if his party, the Telugu Desam Party, forms an alliance with the Congress.

“There is no question of the Telugu Desam Party aligning with the Congress but if that happens, I am ready to hang myself,” he said at a press conference in his hometown Kurnool, PTI reported. He added that he was speaking “on behalf of his party” and not as an individual.

He also said that any alliance would be decided only ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Krishnamurthy’s statement comes amid questions over Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s decision to attend the swearing-in ceremony of his Karnataka counterpart HD Kumaraswamy. Naidu shared the stage with several non-BJP leaders, including Congress’ Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, at the event on May 23 in Bengaluru.

The Opposition YSR Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party have accused the Telugu Desam Party of planning to form an alliance with the Congress for the Lok Sabha elections. They have questioned Naidu’s credibility, saying that his anti-Congress rhetoric in the past is still fresh in the minds of people.

In the last election campaign in 2014, Naidu had played the “Andhra sentiment” to the hilt by projecting the Congress, then ruling at the Centre, as the villain out to deny the state its due. His party swept both the Assembly and parliamentary elections.

BJP National Secretary Ram Madhav had said days after Kumaraswamy’s swearing-in ceremony that Naidu was going against the motto of the party founder, late NT Rama Rao. Rao had wanted to unite all non-Congress parties. “Naidu is trying to sail with a party known for corruption and family rule,” Madhav had said. “Congress is his [Naidu’s] home and he is practising the principles of the party, be it corruption, family rule, caste politics or non-accountability.”

But Naidu has claimed that sharing a dais with Congress leaders does not mean he was open for an alliance with the party. His Telugu Desam Party has been at odds with the BJP-led Union government over the Centre’s rejection of the demand for special category status for Andhra Pradesh. The party pulled out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in March and moved a no-confidence motion against the Centre for failing to grant Andhra Pradesh special category status.