Hyderabad: Confident of forming the first government in Telangana, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti president, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, is apparently already busy deciding on his Cabinet members.
After the most gruelling election campaign since he formed the party in 2001 and after casting his vote at his native village near Siddipet, Mr Rao is back at his farmhouse, nursing a severe leg pain.
“He planned to meet a delegation from Gajwel on Thursday and there are no other engagements. He will return to the city on Friday,” a party source said.
However, going by the distribution of Assembly and Lok Sabha tickets, Mr Rao will have his work cut out forming his Cabinet as he had upset quite a few party leaders in the process.He will also have to satisfy all sections, especially SCs, STs, minorities (whom he has promised the deputy CM’s post) and women.
Mr Rao, who had claimed recently that the TRS would win by 2/3rd majority in the Assembly polls (90 seats) and would form the government on its own, has already promised Cabinet berths to several TRS candidates during electioneering.
In a bid to encourage candidates to put in extra efforts to win, Mr Rao had promised Cabinet berths at public meetings to K. Pocharam Srinivas Reddy (Banswada), T. Padma Rao (Secunderabad), Jagdeeshwar Reddy (Suryapet), P. Mahender Reddy (Tandur), T. Harishwar Reddy (Parigi), Srinivas Goud (Mahbubnagar) besides MLC, Swami Goud among others.
There are also some top party leaders in line for Cabinet berths like Nayani Narasimha Reddy, Mr Rao’s nephew T. Harish Rao, and son K.T. Rama Rao, to name a few. Mr Rao had initially promised a Dalit CM and a Muslim as deputy CM, but had later dropped the first option.
“TRS will get absolute majority and form the government. The rise in voting percentage indicates a big win for TRS,” said Dr K. Kesava Rao, TRS secretary general.
Another leader, meanwhile, said that it was too early for Mr Rao to select his Cabinet. “He knows everyone’s calibre by heart. But selecting a Cabinet will be tough since everyone who contested had contributed to the movement and the party,” he remarked.
Mr Rao has also promised MLC tickets to a dozen odd party leaders who were denied Assembly and Lok Sabha tickets. But though the TRS is claiming that it will get absolute majority, there are some who say that the party may get 60-65 Assembly seats out of 119, which is also enough to form the government on its own.
In case the party misses the magic figure of 60 seats, Mr Rao has kept the doors open for an alliance with election rival Congress after he made the sensational statement that he would back Rahul Gandhi as prime minister if the latter asked for his support, and of course the MIM, which is sure to get seven sitting seats, besides one or two more. The party is also confident of bagging 10-12 LS seats which will ensure good strength in LS.
