No sign of Cabinet reshuffle in Telangana; aspirants let down

HYDERABAD: The unexpected political developments in the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in May leading to bypoll for Huzurabad Assembly seat seem to have dashed hopes of TRS leaders of securing Cabinet berths and nominated posts in the party and the government.

TRS leaders believe that the party president and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao will not undertake any exercise either to reshuffle his Cabinet or to fill nominated posts in the party as well as in the government until the Huzurabad bypoll is over.

These leaders have been desperately waiting for years to grab plum posts but the appointment process is getting delayed every time under one pretext or the other. They had pinned heavy hopes on the Chief Minister undertaking Cabinet reshuffle and filling up hundreds of nominated posts in the party and the government soon after the completion of Nagarjunasagar Assembly bypoll and municipal corporation elections for Khammam and Warangal besides five municipalities in May first week.

The fact that the municipal polls in May marked the completion of all elections in Telangana and no polls were scheduled until 2023 December Assembly polls rekindled the hopes of these leaders. They strongly believed that this was the 'ideal time' for the party chief to reward leaders with nominated posts who worked for the TRS victory in all the polls since December 2018.

But then, the Chief Minister sacking health minister Eatala Rajender from his Cabinet on the day when polling ended for municipal polls in May first week came as a shocker for these aspiring leaders. It eventually led to Eatala quitting the TRS as well as MLA post in June first week forcing yet another bypoll in Huzurabad.

According to party sources, the Chief Minister now is completely focussed on winning Huzurabad bypoll, come what may, and he wants the entire party leaders and cadre to remain focussed on Huzurabad.

The Chief Minister is said to be in mood to take up any Cabinet reshuffle or fill nominated posts at this juncture as it may divert the attention of party leaders and cadre from Huzurabad bypoll and also give scope for dissidence surfacing in the party from the leaders who could not be accommodated either in Cabinet or in nominated posts due to political and caste equations in some districts.

Leaders desperately waiting for posts are a worried lot as exactly only half of the five-year term is left for the TRS government before facing Assembly polls in December 2023. They are hoping that the party chief will take this factor into account and expedite the filling of nominated posts after the Huzurabad bypoll.