Hyderabad, May 26: It has Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s stamp all the way. Striking a balance between loyalty and efficiency and giving the highestever representation to women, the Chief Minister inducted 35 members into his Cabinet here on Monday. With almost all ministers from Telangana defeated in the recent elections, Reddy picked as many as five women from the region for the Cabinet. The only other woman minister hails from Rayalaseema while the coastal region is represented only by men.
Having brought the party to power for a second term, the Chief Minister appears to have had an easy time in getting the high command’s nod for the team of his choice, unlike the pulls and pressures that are typical of Congress.
Barring Adilabad, where the Congress performed badly, all the other districts found representation in the ministry which has 20 new faces.
Caste-wise, Reddys and BCs got the lion’s share with 11 ministers from each community. There are four SCs, one ST, two Yadavs and one each from Brahmin, Kamma, Vysya, Velama, Khastriya, Goud, Munnur Kapu, Toorpu Kapu and Balija communities.
The Legislative Council has a lone representative in the Cabinet in Konijeti Rosaiah, Finance Minister in the last term who did not contest the election this time.
The fresh faces in the Cabinet are: Sridhar Babu (Karimnagar), Sudarshan Reddy (Nizamabad), Konda Surekha (Warangal), R Venkata Reddy (Khammam), Sunitha Lakshma Reddy (Medak), K Venkata Reddy (Nalgonda), J Krishna Rao, DK Aruna (both from Mahaboobnagar), Danam Nagender (Hyderabad), Silpa Mohan Reddy (Kurnool) Ahmadulla I(Kadapa) P Ramachandra Reddy (Chittoor), B Srinivasa Reddy (Prakasam), Manikya Varaprasad and Gade Venkata Reddy (Guntur), Parthasarathy (Krishna), Vatti Vasantha Kumar and P Satyanarayana (West Godavari) Viswaroop (East Godavari), P Balaraju (Vizag).
Ministers in the previous cabinet, who were retained, are: P Lakshmaiah (Warangal) D Rajanarasimha (Medak), Sabita Indra Reddy (Ranga Reddy), Mukesh Goud (Hyderabad), N Raghuveera Reddy (Anantapur), G Arunakumari (Chittoor) , Anam Ramnarayana Reddy (Nellore), K Rosaiah (Prakasam), K Lakshminarayana, Mopidevi Venkataramana (Guntur), P Subhash Chandra Bose (East Godavari), B Satyanarayana (Vizianagaram) and D Prasada Rao and Satrucharla Vijayarama Raju (Srikakulam).
After the swearing-in ceremony, the Chief Minister held his first Cabinet meeting at which he advised his colleagues to set an example for the rest by their conduct. He also wanted them to work efficiently for the welfare of all.