Hyderabad: One and half years after forming the government, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy expanded his cabinet by inducting three ministers, but has left several hopefuls resentful.
In a ceremony Sunday at the Raj Bhavan, Governor Jishnu Dev Varma administered the oaths of office and secrecy to Vivek Venkata Swamy, Adluri Laxman, and Vakiti Srihari. These MLAs represent Mala, Madiga (Scheduled Castes) and Mudiraj (Backward Caste) communities, respectively.
Another three berths remain vacant in the Telangana Council of Ministers, thereby intensifying the competition for later expansion. Several legislators like Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy, Sudarshan Reddy, Malreddy Ranga Reddy and Prem Sagar Rao were vying for the berths.
The Congress leaders including party state chief Mahesh Goud and state in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan have initiated talks to pacify the upset legislators, with some assurances for the future.
Goud and Natarajan, accompanied by minister Ponnam Prabhakar and others, met with Sudarshan and Rao at their residences on Sunday. Party sources said that they are trying to talk with Raj Gopal Reddy as well.
The high command is said to have put aside the Reddy contenders for now, as Revanth’s cabinet already has four from the influential, upper caste community, including the CM himself.
Komatireddy’s inclusion was doubtful as his elder brother Venkat Reddy is a minister.
“Confirming our leader Rahul Gandhi’s thoughts, our people’s government gives importance to social justice and inclusion,” minister Ponnam said in a press statement.
Vivek Venkat Swamy represents the SC reserved Chennur constituency, one of the assembly segments in Peddapalli parliamentary seat. He had represented Peddapalli in Parliament from 2009 to 2014 as a Congress MP. He joined the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in 2016.
Associated with the BJP later, the Mala community leader rejoined the Congress just before the 2023 Telangana polls. Vivek is son of former Union minister Gaddam Venkat Swamy, who represented Peddapalli in the Lok Sabha four times. Now, Vivek’s son Gaddam Vamsi Krishna is the Peddapalli MP. Venkat Swamy’s other son Gaddam Vinod is serving as Bellampalli MLA.
Adluri Laxman, who served in the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and the Youth Congress, is a first-time MLA from SC reserved Dharmapuri constituency. He was defeated in the same segment in 2009, 2014 and 2018 by Koppula Eshwar of the BRS.
Vakiti Srihari from the numerically strong Mudiraj, a backward community, represents Makhtal assembly in south Telangana bordering Karnataka. He is also a first time MLA.
Some other legislators who expected a berth in the much-awaited expansion include Aadi Srinivas (BC Munnuru Kapu, from Vemulawada), Jatoth Ram Chander Naik (ST).
Earlier in the day, while revealing the names of the three new ministers, CM Reddy in a post on ‘X’, announced that Ram Chander will take charge as deputy speaker in the Telangana assembly.
Meanwhile, one assembly seat fell vacant as BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath, representing Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad, passed away Sunday morning.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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