Visakhapatnam: TD Chief N Chandrababu Naidu has balanced out Cabinet berth allocation for MLAs from the district.
Senior TDP leader and six times MLA, Ch Ayyanna Patrudu and three times MLA and former minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao are going to take oath along with Naidu as ministers in the first Cabinet of the divided Andhra Pradesh on Sunday evening, according to sources.
Two ministerial berth aspirants, Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy and BJP north MLA, P Vishukumar Raju were given a raw deal.
Rao’s supporters want to see him as deputy chief minister and work for the state’s development.
Patrudu lost the state Assembly elections in 2009 to the then Congress candidate Bolem MUtyalapapa in his bastion Narsipatnam. He won with a thin majority of 2,338 votes against YSRC candidate, Petla Uma Sankar Ganesh, brother of Tollywood director Puri Jagannath, in the recently concluded general elections.
Naidu, also unleashed a turf war by allotting berths to both who are archrival. While Patrudu has been in TD since the party’s inception and has been winning MLA since 1983, Rao forayed into politics in 1999 as Anakapalle MP on a TD ticket.
Patrudu, who has served thrice as minister in NT Ramarao and N Chandrababu Naidu Cabinet, Srinivas Rao, was also a minister in the N Kiran Kumar Reddy Cabinet of the Congress.
Rao and Patrudu’s political rivalry has been in the open for long now and both leaders have not shied away from taking jibes at each other.
Rao, shifted loyalties from TD to PRP in 2009 and became minister in the Congress government after the party merged to Congress.
Speculation was rife that it was not going to be an easy task for Naidu in Vizag to choose between former ministers Ganta Srinivas Rao, Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy or Ch Ayyana Patrudu.
Even as the strength of the Cabinet shrunk due to Andhra Pradesh’s bifurcation, the berth allocation garnered more interest than the results.
3 ministers in Chandrababu Naidu’s Cabinet from Krishna district
Andhra Pradesh will have three ministers from Krishna district in Chandrababu Naidu’s Cabinet.
As per reports, senior leader and Mylavaram legislator Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, Machilipatnam legislator Kollu Ravindra both from Telugu Desam and Kaikaluru legislator Kamineni Srinivas from BJP bagged the minister posts.
Two first time legislators Kollu Ravindra and Kamineni Srinivas were also selected for the cabinet minister posts.
Kollu Ravindra is the son-in-law of former minister Nadakuditi Narasimha Rao. He faced defeat in the last assembly elections.
TDP MLA Atchennaidu gets Cabinet berth
TDP MLA Atcennaidu who won from Tekkali segment with 8,387 votes margin against rival and YSRC candidate, D Srininvas gets a berth in Chandrababu Naidu’s Cabinet.
Atchennaidu is brother of former Union minister, Kinjarapu Yerrannaidu who died in a road accident at Ranastalam in Srikakulam district a year ago.
Yerrannaidu’s son K Rammohan Naidu was also elected as an MP from Srikakulam with 1, 27,412 votes majority.
Atchennaidu has been elected as an MLA for the fourth time.
In 2009 elections Atchennaidu was defeated by Congress candidate Dr Korla Revathipathi.
