'Berth day' for veteran TDP leader Ashok Gajapathi Raju

New Delhi: Veteran Telugu Desam leader Ashok Gajapathi Raju will be the lone party nominee to be inducted into the Union Cabinet on Monday along with the likely BJP nominees M. Venkaiah Naidu and Bandaru Dattatreya.

Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu is understood to have conveyed the name of Mr Gajapathi Raju during their meeting on Sunday after he was asked to suggest the name for a Cabinet berth from his party.

Sources told this newspaper that Mr Raju was the obvious choice for the post as he is one of the senior-most leaders among the current lot of MPs who have been elected on TD tickets in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.

They said Mr Modi had told Mr Naidu that the TD will get two ministers of state berth when he expands his Cabinet at a later stage. The sources added that Mr Naidu had demanded one more cabinet berth for his party.

Though Mr Raju would be the lone nominee from the TD, there was no clarity on the portfolio he is likely to get in the NDA government.

Mr Naidu has been camping in the national capital since Saturday to get berths for his colleagues in the Modi cabinet. This is the first time that the TD would join any BJP-led Government at the Centre. In 1998 and 1999, the TDP had provided outside support to the then A B Vajpayee Government but did not join the Cabinet.

Senior BJP leaders M Venkaiah Naidu and Bandaru Dattatreya are the likely nominees from united Andhra Pradesh who will take oath as Cabinet Ministers. While Mr Naidu had served as Cabinet Minister in the Vajpayee Government, Mr Dattatreya was a Minister of State.

From neighbouring Tamil Nadu, the name of lone party MP and state BJP chief Pon. Radhakrishnan’s name is doing the rounds for a Cabinet post.