Jagan reconstitutes Andhra cabinet, focus on backward classes

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy reconstituted the state Cabinet on Monday, inducting 13 new faces and retaining 11 from his earlier team.

Veteran legislator Dharmana Prasada Rao has been inducted into the Cabinet, making him the senior-most minister.

Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan administered the oath of office and secrecy to 25 members of the Cabinet, at a public function near the state Secretariat in capital city Amaravati.

Nobody from the Legislative Council was taken into the Cabinet as was expected.

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The fresh Council of Ministers has been constituted solely on caste and community lines, with the lion’s share of 10 berths going to backward classes.

Two, including the Chief Minister, are from the minority communities, five are from the Scheduled Castes and one from the Scheduled Tribes. The Cabinet has four women members, one from the previous.

Four each from the Reddy and the Kapu communities have also been inducted.

Kamma, Kshatriya and Vysya communities, which had one representative each in the previous Cabinet, were now completely left out. Brahmin community has been denied a Cabinet berth yet again.

Of the total 26 districts in the state, at least seven did not find any representation in the new Cabinet.

The ruling YSR Congress described it as the Social Cabinet, with 70 per cent representation to the BC, SC, ST and minority communities.

When he formed his first Cabinet in June 2019, the CM had announced that he would undertake a revamp after two and a half years (December 2021) and bring-in 90 per cent new faces, retaining only 10 per cent (three members).

By that count, only two ministers, apart from the Chief Minister, were to be retained but Jagan, however, brought back 11 from the previous Cabinet, who were made to resign on April 7.

Amzath Basha Shaik Bepari and K Narayana Swamy, who served as Deputy Chief Ministers in the previous Cabinet, have been re-inducted.

Seniors like Botsa Satyanarayana, P R C Reddy, P Viswaroop, A Suresh and Buggana Rajendranath also secured a fresh berth.

S Appala Raju, Ch Venugopala Krishna, G Jayaram and T Vanita got a second chance, owing to caste calculations.

Film star R K Roja, serving her second term as an MLA, finally made it to the Cabinet.

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Another senior leader Ambati Rambabu, who missed the bus in 2019, also managed it this time.

Gudivada Amarnath, P Rajanna Dora, B Mutyala Naidu, Dadisetti Ramalingeswara Rao, K V Nageswara Rao, K Satyanarayana, J Ramesh, V Rajani, M Nagarjuna, K Govardhan Reddy and Usha Sricharan were the others who became new ministers.

(With inputs from Agencies)