Parkala Prabhakar, the communications advisor to the Andhra Pradesh government, resigned on Tuesday. Prabhakar, who is Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s husband, said he was stepping down as he has been targeted by Opposition parties in the state ever since the ruling Telugu Desam Party walked out of the National Democratic Alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre in March.

In his resignation letter to Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, Prabhakar said the Opposition leaders, including YSR Congress chief Jaganmohan Reddy, had claimed that he might compromise on the state’s interests as his family member belonged to another party. “For the past few days, a few opposition leaders are pointing fingers at me and questioning why you have been accommodating me, even as you are fighting with the BJP and the Union government,” he wrote, according to The News Minute.

Prabhakar said some of the Opposition leaders had also sought to raise doubts about Naidu’s fight with the Union government. “When some unknown leaders made such statements, my friends asked me not to bother about it. However, today, a responsible opposition leader like YSRCP chief Jaganmohan Reddy, too, has raised the same issue, and reduced your struggle and commitment. These rumours have been manufactured by some people, which have deeply hurt me...I would not want that to tarnish the image of the government or this agitation.”

His resignation has yet to be accepted by Naidu, ANI reported.

The Telugu Desam Party had pulled out of the BJP-led alliance after the Centre rejected its demand for special category status for Andhra Pradesh. The Telugu Desam Party was the National Democratic Alliance’s third-largest constituent in the Lok Sabha with 16 MPs, and its only ally in the south.

Opposition leaders have criticised the Andhra Pradesh chief minister for retaining Prabhakar. “Chandrababu Naidu is accusing me of having a secret understanding with the BJP,” Jaganmohan Reddy had recently said, according to The Times of India. “But, the fact is that he is having an open understanding with BJP and Narendra Modi. If he is serious in his fight against the BJP, why is he continuing a BJP minister’s husband as media advisor,” Reddy had asked.