Hyderabad: Aspirants are hoping that they will secure a berth while ministers are spending anxious moments ahead of the Cabinet reshuffle by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in the next few weeks.
It is not clear whether Mr Rao will only move portfolios among ministers or go for a full-scale reshuffle by dropping a few and inducting new faces.
The size of the Cabinet is limited to 18, or 15 per cent of the 120-member Assembly, including the CM. The TRS has almost 80 per cent of MLAs in the 120-member House and the 40-seat Council.
“As far as my knowledge goes, he will only reshuffle portfolios, which is a matter of a few minutes. I don't think he will go for a complete overhaul since there are too many aspirants,” a senior minister told this newspaper on Sunday.
The same minister admitted that if there was a reshuffle, it would not be undertaken now. “He cannot change the portfolios of a few ministers now and later reshuffle the Cabinet,” he said.
There is a lot of difference now compared to the time Mr Rao last reshuffled the Cabinet in December 2014 and made a minor change in January 2015.
With Mr Rao having admitted many Telugu Desam MLAs including five-time legislator Errabelli Dayakar Rao into the TRS, aspirations are high among those who defected and among those who were elected on a TRS ticket.
In Warangal district, almost all are senior leaders and no one will be satisfied if a rival is accommodated. Mr Kadiam Srihari and Mr A. Chandulal have been given Cabinet posts while Mr Madhu-sudhana Chary is the Speaker. Mr Rao has a tough choice in picking one among Ms Konda Surekha, Mr Dayakar Rao and Mr D. Vinay Bhaskar and leaving the rest fuming.
Probably this is the only Cabinet that does not have a woman minister. The TRS has, apart from Ms Surekha, Ms Ajmeera Rakha Naik, Ms B. Sobha, Ms Kova Laxmi and Ms Sunitha Reddy. The Chief Minister has been unable to take anyone from this list due to the problem of balancing of district politics.
Apart from these, Mr Rao has previously assured Chief Whip Koppula Eswar and Rasamay Balakishen of Cabinet berths. When the TRS government completes its two years in office on June 2, a lot of pressure will be built by the aspirants for a ministry. Mr Rao’s balancing act will not be easy.
