Hyderabad, May 14: Will any one from the state make it to the Central cabinet this time? This question is uppermost in the minds of politicos since a reshuffle is likely sooner than later.
If the Centre decides to give fresh representation to Andhra Pradesh, it might consider either Undavalli Arun Kumar (Rajahmundry) or Kavuri Sambasiva Rao (Eluru).
The Centre, in all likelihood, might go in for a reshuffle a few days after the results of the elections to the five states and that of the by-elections in Kadapa are out on Friday. What is fuelling speculation is that the Prime Minister had gone on record in January after a limited reshuffle that a full-fledged expansion would take place after the budget session of Parliament which ended on May 6. Now that the Assembly elections too are over in five states, the government does not have any excuse to further postpone cabinet expansion, some hopefuls say.
This time too, like in January, there might not be any representation to the Telangana region since even if offered, no MP is prepared to accept a berth since they have declared that they will resign from Parliament itself if Telangana is not granted statehood. At present, only S Jaipal Reddy represents the region in the Union ministry and the other four _ all ministers of state _ are from Andhra and Rayalaseema. They are D Purandeswari, MM Pallam Raju, Panabaka Lakshmi and A Sai Pratap.
According to sources, Sambasiva Rao, though a very senior MP and one who has been missing the bus all the time due to one reason or the other, may not be able to make it this time too since his elevation may not be to the liking of Telangana leaders. This apart, according to an analyst, the Congress is not in a position to afford criticism by taking an MP who has several axes to grind. Another reason that might work against him is that D Purandeswari, who belongs to the same community, is already in the central cabinet.
In the circumstances, a likely choice could be Arun Kumar who has defended the Congress at a time when it needed it the most _ on the eve of the Kadapa bypolls.
–Agencies