Hyderabad: Chief Ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, intend to reshuffle their Cabinets to induct defector Opposition MLAs.
But Mr Rao has apparently decided to wait for his AP counterpart to make the first move. The reason: The TD, including Mr Naidu, were vehement in their criticism when he had inducted Telugu Desam legislator Talasani Srinivas Yadav in the Cabinet in December 2014. TD leader A. Revanth Reddy had even filed a case in the High Court, which is pending.
Constitutionally, the Governor can induct anyone in the Cabinet on the advise of the Chief Minister. Politically the action was criticised as an ethical issue, with the Opposition questioning how an elected MLA from one party could be inducted into the Cabinet without the party being a part of the ruling alliance.
With Mr Naidu too planning to reshuffle his Cabinet to include some of YSRC MLAs who had defected to the TD, Mr Rao wants to wait till that happens so that he can go ahead with his reshuffle to avoid more political criticism, especially from the TD.
Mr Naidu has been planning his first Cabinet reshuffle two-and-a-half years after the formation of his government and is most likely to induct three to four YSRC MLAs who had defected to the TD.
Other than Mr Nara Lokesh from the TD, Mr Naidu might induct Mr Bhuma Nagireddy (Nan-dyala), Mr Jyothula Ne-hru (Jaggampet), Mr N. Amaranath Reddy (Pal-amner) and Mr Jaleel Khan (Vijayawada We-st), all ex-YSRC MLAs.
Currently the AP Cabinet has 20 ministers including the Chief Minister, and the maximum limit is 26. During the reshuffle, Mr Naidu is expected to drop a few ministers to accommodate some TD legislators. Sources said he would begin an exercise of consultations with partymen soon.
According to key sources in the TRS, Mr Chandrasekhar Rao, who was reluctant to go in for a reshuffle till June this year, now seems eager to affect changes, but is waiting for the right time. He too will have to drop a few ministers to make way for the new ones. The cap on the total strength of the Telangana Cabinet is 18 including the CM.
Sources say TD MLA Errabelli Dayakar Rao (Palakurthi) and Cong-ress MP Gutta Sukhen-der Reddy (Nalgonda), who later shifted to the TRS, are likely to be inducted into the Cabi-net. Besides them, Ms Kova Laxmi (ST, Asifa-bad) and Mr Dashyam Vinaya Bhaskar (War-angal West), might also be named. Mr Rao will have to drop at least four ministers to accommodate the new ministers.
