Andhra Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to reconstitute his state cabinet
Amravati:
All 24 members of the Andhra Pradesh Council of Ministers will collectively submit their resignations when they formally meet in Amaravati on April 7 to let Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy reconstitute his cabinet.
The new council of ministers will be inducted on April 11.
Government sources told news agency PTI that there will be new faces in the reconstituted cabinet, but at least four from the existing team may be re-inducted.
Sources told the Press Trust of India that the new appointments and retentions are purely based on caste norms, with no other factors involved.
When he took over as Chief Minister on May 30, 2019, Jagan Reddy had announced that he would complete a complete overhaul of his cabinet after two and a half years and have a new team.
The current cabinet was sworn in on June 8, 2019 and was to remain in office till December 8, 2021.
Due to several reasons including the Covid-19 pandemic, the cabinet reorganization was put on hold before the due date.
Last month, the chief minister announced that he would take up the task of restructuring the cabinet after Ugadi (Telugu New Year’s Day falling on April 2) and the formation of new districts thereafter.
The new districts came into existence on April 4, paving the way for a cabinet reshuffle.
According to indications from the ruling YSR Congress, the existing structure of the Council of Ministers will be retained, which will have five deputy chief ministers.
One MLA each from Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Muslim, Backward Caste and Kapu community will be given one DCM post.
Based on the caste count, at least four existing ministers can be re-inducted into the new cabinet.
“In the case of two ministers, clearly there are no alternative candidates available from the same caste. As such, they are expected to return it. Though some other MLAs from the same community are in line, an SC (Madiga) minister also Maybe they should be included again as local factors dominate,” said a minister in the outgoing cabinet.
The same caste equation may work in favor of another minister, who may again secure a berth.
Apart from the Reddy community, the main support group of the YSRC, Kapu is also expected to get the same preference in the new cabinet, essentially to counter the opposition Jana Sena of film star Pawan Kalyan.
The one community that will be left out again will be Brahmins, who will have to be content with the post of Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.
There are three women in the current cabinet and a similar number is expected to be in the new cabinet.
Last month, the chief minister had remarked that dropping ministers did not mean “keeping them apart”.
Jagan Reddy said, “Some of them will be made presidents of district party units and some will be appointed as regional coordinators. We are giving them party responsibilities as they have achieved promotions and personal prestige as ministers.” “
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)