Revanth’s Delhi Tour Triggers Speculations on Cabinet Expansion

Hyderabad: The two-day Delhi tour of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy triggered speculation of a Cabinet expansion in Telangana in July. The Chief Minister, who would attend the oath-taking ceremony of newly-elected Lok Sabha members, is expected to discuss the issue of the Cabinet expansion with the Congress high command.

Revanth Reddy is understood to be keen on inducting senior MLAs into the Cabinet in July. After the Congress came to power in December, a 12-member Cabinet, including the Chief Minister, was sworn-in. As per Constitutional norms, the Telangana Cabinet cannot have more than 18 ministers, including the Chief Minister -- giving an opportunity to induct six more ministers into the Cabinet.

Currently, the erstwhile composite district of Khammam has the higher representation with three ministers — Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and Tumala Nageshwar Rao — representing it.

Erstwhile composite districts of Nalgonda, Warangal and Karimnagar districts have representation of two ministers. Nalgonda is represented by N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, Warangal is represented by Konda Surekha and Danasari Anasuya (Seethakka) and Karimnagar is represented by Ponnam Prabhakar and Duddilla Sridhar Babu.

Erstwhile Medak district has the sole representation of Damodar Rajanarasimha, while there is no ministerial representative from Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Nizamabad and Adilabad districts.

It was also speculated that P. Sudarshan Reddy, Balmoor Venkat (MLC), Adi Srinivas, Beerla Ilaiah, Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy, Vakiti Srihari, Vejma Bojju, Premsagar Rao among others are in the race for the Cabinet berths.