Jagan Mohan Reddy to have five deputy CMs

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will have five Deputy Chief Ministers, one each from the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes, Minority, and Kapu groups.

His new Cabinet, to be sworn-in on Saturday, will have 60 per cent of ministers from the Backward Classes (BCs) and Scheduled Castes (SCs) communities.

This is the first time that these two groups will get such a strong representation in the Cabinet. The BC group tops the list with seven ministers.

Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy has 19 first-time ministers; the other six were colleagues of his father, the late CM Dr Y.S.  Rajasekhar Reddy, according to the list released on Friday evening.

The CM said 90 per cent of the ministers inducted on Saturday will be replaced after two-and-a-half years to give others a chance. Those who are replaced will be deployed for party work.

Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan, who will administer the oath to the new ministers, has arrived in the city. The swearing-in ceremony will start at 11.49 am on Saturday.

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will have five Deputy Chief Min-isters, one each from the Scheduled Caste, Sch-eduled Tribes, Backward Classes, minority, and Kapu groups.

Mr Reddy will officially step into his chambers at the Secretariat at 8.49 am on Saturday.  

The CM has gone by caste and regional equations to provide representation to all groups. While SC voters have always stood rock solid behind Mr Reddy, the BC communities, who were a traditional vote bank of the Telugu Desam, voted for the YSRC in the recent elections.

For the first time in Andhra Pradesh, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy had announced at a meeting of the YSRC Legislature Party on Friday morning that the Cabinet would have five Deputy Chief Ministers drawn from the SC, ST, BC, minority and Kapu communities.

The Naidu government had a Deputy CM from the BC community and one from the Kapus.

Mr Reddy has given seven berths to Backward Classes (BC) groups, five legislators belonging to the Scheduled Castes  — two from the Madiga community and three from the Mala community. The Kapu and Reddy communities got four berths each. The ST, Vysya, Kamma, Kshatriya and minority groups got one berth each.

Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy has ensured equal geographical representation in the Cabinet: Four ministers from the north coastal region, six from East and West Godavari, five from Krishna and Guntur, four from Prakasam and Nellore and six from Rayalaseema.

Of the 25 ministers, Mr Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose is an MLC. Mr Mopidevi Venkata Ramana who lost from Repalle in Guntur district has been given a Cabinet berth. He comes from the fishermen community and was the first minister in the Rajasekhar Reddy Cabinet to be arrested by the CBI in Mr Reddy’s alleged disproportionate assets case. After his release, Mr Ramana quit the Congress and joined the YSRC.

The other former ministers taking oath are Botsa Satyanarayana, Pinipe Viswaroop, Balin-eni Srinivas Reddy and Peddireddy Ramachan-dra Reddy.  

Meanwhile, AP government adviser Ajay Kallam, YSRC leaders Y V Subba Reddy and Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy were seen supervising remodelling of the CM's chambers in Block 1 as per Vastu norms. Mr Reddy will enter the office for the first time on Saturday.

“It’s unbelievable that more than 50 per cent berths went to BCs and SCs. We were spellbound by the way our chief is functioning in such a transparent manner. Happy to be part of such a historic Cabinet," said Ms Thanetoi Vanitha who will take oath as minister on Saturday.