Kurnool: Three ministers - two from Nandyal and one from Kurnool city – have been inducted into Chandrababu Naidu’s Cabinet.
Political analysts say the Telugu Desam chief followed the caste equations perfectly, giving priority to the Reddy, Muslim and Vysya communities. Banaganapalle legislator B.C. Janardhan Reddy, Nandyal city MLA N.M.D. Farooq and Kurnool city MLA T.G. Bharat were made ministers.
Bharat, son of former Rajya Sabha member and BJP leader T.G. Venkatesh, has been picked under the Vysya quota. He was the only leader from the community elected to the assembly. He faced defeat in the 2019 polls with a margin of 5,000 votes but started early groundwork and won the elections with a majority of 21,000 votes.
Farooq is a senior TD leader who served as a legislator, council chairman etc. He was given the ticket for the Nandyal City seat and won it with a majority of around 12,000 votes. He had represented the constituency in 1985, 1994, 1999. He was expected to be a minister from the minority quota.
Janardhan Reddy is from Banaganapalle and said to be extremely loyal to the party chief. He managed the Yuvagalam programme in the region, supporting Nara Lokesh, and won the polls in 2014 but faced a defeat in 2019. He is given a chance in the cabinet this time.
He won the polls by defeating his nearest rival Katasani Ramireddy of the YSRC with a majority of around 26,000 votes.
In fact, many expected senior leader and septuagenarian Kotla Surya Prakash Reddy, who took on finance minister Buggana Rajendranath and won the polls, to be getting an opportunity.
Allgadda legislator Bhuma Akhila Priya, who earlier served as a minister from Nandyal, was also an aspirant but proved to be unlucky this time.
