Jagan’s cabinet reshuffle plan hit by protests, discontent among MLAs

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy appears to have opened a can of worms by seeking to overhaul his council of ministers.

Jagan, on Monday (April 11), reshuffled his 25-member cabinet by introducing 13 new faces, two years ahead of the next elections. By doing so, the CM gave the impression that he would be equipped with an E-team (the letter ‘E’ denotes elections). But Jagan failed to ensure representation for eight out of 26 districts, though he claims his exercise is aimed at balancing different castes, religions and regions.

Chittoor, the home turf of the Leader of Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu, has got three ministers — Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, K Narayana Swamy and film actor Roja. Strikingly, Kammas, a community Chandrababu Naidu belongs to, has no representation in the new cabinet. Kodali Venkateswara Rao aka Nani was the lone Kamma minister in the outgoing cabinet.

On May 30, 2019, the day of his swearing in as Chief Minister, Jagan Reddy told a public gathering of his commitment to replace the whole cabinet half way through his five-year term. The cabinet overhaul was due in December 2021, but Jagan dragged his feet for three months. At a cabinet meeting on April 7, he secured resignations from all the ministers, saying the services of those left out would be utilised by the party in the respective districts in the run-up to the elections.

Tough task at hand

Backing out of  his commitment, Jagan said he would have to retain 11 old faces considering their seniority and caste . However, the number of old guards has crossed 10 and the move has only exposed the chinks in Jagan’s armour, drawing wild protests from the party across the state.

It is a fact that Jagan had emerged as an invincible leader in the previous election by crushing the TDP. His Yuvajana Sramika Rytu Congress, or YSRC, had won 151 out of 175 Assembly seats with nearly 50 per cent vote share. The Chief Minister has since been maintaining a tight grip over his party.

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Fury over being left out

Mekathoti Sucharitha, who was touted as the first Dalit Home Minister and also the first woman deputy chief minister, has resigned as an MLA in protest. A political drama unfolded at her residence in Prathipadu, Guntur district, as one of her diehard followers even tried self-immolation for removing her from the cabinet.

Sucharitha was the only one among the five SC ministers to be left out of the new cabinet. The followers of Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy, representing Macharla in Old Guntur district, went berserk burning motorcycles and effigies of the CM over the denial of a ministerial berth to his leader.

Similar protests were witnessed in Prakasam, Krishna, Visakhapatnam, Nellore and Ananthapur districts. The members of the Vysya community resorted to a bandh in Anna Venkat Rambabu’s Giddalur Assembly segment in Prakasam district in protest against the reshuffle. With Vellampalli Srinivas — the outgoing Endowment Minister — shown the door, there is no representation for Vysyas in the Jagan cabinet now.

Balineni bears brunt of Jagan family feuds

Taking away Balineni Srinivasa Reddy’s Energy, Forests and Environment portfolio has understandably exposed the feud within Jagan’s family. Balineni represents Ongole in Prakasam district and is Jagan’s maternal uncle. Not continuing with him as the minister apparently points to the raging power tussle between Jagan and Sharmila, his younger sister.

Reportedly unhappy over her son ignoring Sharmila, their mother Vijayamma is said to have distanced herself from Jagan for quite some time now. The sibling clash is the result of Sharmila floating a party named YSR Telangana against the wishes of Jagan. She, however, had the blessings of her mother.

Similarly, YV Subba Reddy, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Chairman, and another of Jagan’s relative from Vijayamma’s side, is also said to have been sidelined allegedly at the instance of Bharati Reddy, Jagan’s wife. Adimulam Suresh, a Scheduled Caste and Minister for Education in the previous cabinet, has been retained in the new cabinet, much to the chagrin of Balineni. The followers of Balineni suspect that Suresh is being used by the CM’s coterie to checkmate Srinivasa Reddy.

Hard nut to crack

The promise to replace the entire ministry in 2.5 years was easy to make but difficult to keep. Jagan Reddy clearly struggled to apply the yardstick to senior ministers. Retaining old faces is apparently reflective of the fact that Jagan has yielded to pressure from seniors. Of them, Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy and Botsa Satyanarayana, who earlier held Panchayat Raj, Rural Development and Mining and Municipal and Urban Development Minister respectively, have proved hard nuts to crack. In fact, Ramachandra Reddy and Satyanarayana were some time back projected as potential candidates to replace Jagan Reddy as the CM in case of the latter’s bail in the ED cases was scrapped and his arrest become imminent.

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Peddireddy, representing the Punganur constituency, is considered a Rayalaseema strong man. He is a leading contractor with his Akruti Projects Private Limited (APPL)’s turnover over Rs 1,600 crore. He has a presence in real estate, construction, mining and irrigation. Ramachandra Reddy, credited with running a rival group of Chandrababu Naidu during his university days in Tirupati, is a contemporary of Jagan’s father Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy in politics. His son Mithun Reddy is currently Lok Sabha member from Rajampet constituency and brother Dwarakanath Reddy is a ruling party legislator from Tamballapalli in Chittoor district. Thus, Ramachandra Reddy has expanded his influence over most parts of Rayalaseema with majority of legislators under his grip. Therefore, Jagan obviously cannot afford to ignore him.

Botsa Satyanarayana is equally strong with a considerable clout in the Uttarandhra region. Satyanarayana was an old-timer in Congress politics and a YSR loyalist. He was the president of the Pradesh Congress Committee in the undivided Andhra Pradesh and even staked claims for the CM’s post as a successor to Nallari Kirankumar Reddy before the state’s bifurcation.

The influence of seniors over Jagan is such that they even succeeded in keeping Jagan’s close aid and MP V. Vijayasai Reddy out of the cabinet. The Chief Minister’s Office, in the run up to the cabinet reshuffle, planted stories in the media suggesting Vijayasai as a potential candidate to replace Buggana Rajendranath Reddy as Finance Minister.

Yugandhar Reddy, a political analyst, said Jagan’s “political immaturity” is the root cause of the simmering discontent within his party. Though people handed him a massive mandate, Jagan failed to maintain a direct contact with his party legislators and ministers, heavily depending on middlemen like Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy (an advisor to the CM). “Had he tried to talk to the outgoing ministers in private and convince them, the turmoil would have been averted,” Yugandhar Reddy told The Federal.