Deputy Chief Minister lobbying in Delhi for Home portfolio

While the fate of the “tainted ministers” in the State Cabinet continues to hang fire, they seemed to have got a breather with the Congress High Command withholding permission to Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy to revamp and reshuffle his ministry at least till the completion of elections in the neighbouring Karnataka State due in the first week of May.

There was intense speculation about the continuance or otherwise of the remaining five “tainted ministers” when the Chief Minister and the APCC President Botcha Satyanarayana were in the national capital for two days holding discussions and consultations with the Congress central leadership including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

It might be mentioned here that the names of six ministers figured in connection with CBI investigations into the illegal assets case of Kadapa MP and late YSR’s son Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. One of the “tainted ministers’, Mopidevi Venkataramana has already been shown the door and is now cooling his heels in the jail. Two other ministers whose name figured as accused in the CBI charge-sheet are Roads and Buildings Minister Dharmana Prasada Rao and Home Minister Sabita Indra Reddy. Both of them have submitted their resignations on different occasions to the Chief Minister who promptly put them in the dust bin and hence continuing in the cabinet.

The issue of the “tainted ministers” has rattled the High Command with the united Opposition launching a relentless onslaught against the Kiran Government. Perturbed over the goings on in the ruling Congress in the state, the High Command summoned the Chief Minister and the APCC President to the national capital to take stock of the situation and initiate some damage control measures.

However contrary to all expectations the Delhi Mission of the two top brass of the state turned out to be a damp squib with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi not making up their minds whether to allow the Chief Minister to retain the tainted ministers in the cabinet or show them the door in order to protect the image of the ruling party.

Thus the indecision of the Congress High Command in dealing firmly with this tricky issue, the :tainted ministers” seem to have definitely got little breather. However they have become target ridicule from their own senior party leaders. Former PCC President and Rajya Sabha member V. Hanumantha Rao wondered why the Chief Minister was continuing to protect the “tainted ministers” which was projecting a bad image of the Congress.. He also felt that if the tainted ministers are continued in the ministry, the Congress chances in the ensuing elections was bound to be adversely affected.

Despite the fact that the Chief Minister has pushed the ball in the court of the central leadership on the issue of the tainted ministers and the later dilly dallying to take a final call to put an end the, speculations are till making rounds in political circles that a reshuffle of the Kiran ministry would take place sooner or later. It is also being talked that the Chief Minister at least would be compelled to divest the Home portfolio from Sabita Indra Reddy.

Thus the race for grabbing the Home portfolio has commenced among some senor party leaders in the state. The APCC President Bothca Satynarayana, who is also holding the Transport Ministry, is likely to be divested of the party post and hence is keen to take over the Home Ministry. Panchayat Raj Minister K. Jana Reddy, Information and Broadcasting Minister D.K. Aruna and former APCC President D. Srinivas too are aspiring to grab the Home portfolio in the event of a reshuffle. the latest to join the race for the Home Ministry is none other than Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajnarsimha .

The Deputy Chief Minister is already in New Delhi meeting Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and other central leaders to impress upon them to consider him to take over the Home portfolio. However, the Chief Minister seem to be keen that the Home portfolio, if he revamps his cabinet, should be entrusted to his own loyalist.

–Agencies