There seems to be more to it than meets the eye in Andhra Pradesh being rewarded with five more berths in the Central Cabinet after Sunday’s major rejig ventured by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ostensibly to rejuvenate the Congress and prepare it for the major electoral battle in 2014.
After Sunday’s reshuffle, the strength of ministers from the State in the Union cabinet has gone up to 10, the highest representation for any State. Now, Manmohan Singh’s team will now have one third of the 31 MPs from the State.
Though unflinching loyalty and non-controversial are factors being proclaimed as yardstick for rewarding the ministerial berths to five new faces from the State, undoubtedly the Congress High Command seems to send a discreet message that it was not in a hurry to take a final call on the controversial issue of separate Telangana state. To be more explicit, the Telangana issue has been compromised and put on the back burner in return for the “jackpot” gifted to the State in the form of ministerial berths.
Ipso facto, AICC chief Sonia Gandhi has played a master stroke to contain the raging Telangana cauldron by ensuring that two MPs from the region — P. Balaram Naik and Sarve Satyanarayana — are inducted in the Union ministry. In offering the ministerial posts to the two Telangana MPs belonging to the ST and SC communities respectively, she also cleverly tried to shut the voices of the MPs from the region, who are spearheading the T-movement, to protest or revolt for being branded as anti-weaker sections.
It will not be out of place to mention here that both Balram Naik and Sarve Satyanarayana, though joined the Telangana agitation by joining with other MPs from the region, they had later distanced themselves from the movement and had even attended Parliament session while the others boycotted. Thus, the two were rewarded for remaining neutral on the issue by not crossing swords with the Central leadership of the party.
It is also pertinent to note here that despite being elected five times to the Lok Sabha from Machilipatnam and Eluru, K. Sambasiva Rao and three-time MP from Guntur Rayapati Sambasiva Rao were ignored because of their association with the movement in the Seeemandhra region protesting against bifurcation of the State. Though K.S. Rao has sent his resignation as MP in protest against denying a berth to him, it is not likely to make a major impact on the Congress at the Centre.
The induction of K. Chiranjeevi, Kotla Suryaprakash Reddy and Killi Kripa Rani also seem to have a hidden agenda of the Congress High Command. Though Chiranjeevi has been allotted a berth to fulfill the promise for his Praja Rajyam party’s merger with the Congress, the game plan actually seems to be to appease the powerful Kapu vote bank in the coastal Andhra region. Similarly, Kotal Suryaprakash Reddy’s induction was to keep the Reddy vote bank in the Rayalassema region in tact. This exercise was to ensure that the Kapus and Reddys do not jump into the YSR Congress Party led by Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, which undoubtedly has been causing a nightmare to the ruling Congress in the State.
Against this political scenario, the Congress High Command worried and rattled by the sagging image of the Congress in the State and at the same time the YSR Congress moving like a juggernaut and the Telugu Desam making its own stride, seemed to be not inclined to bifurcate the State and grant a Telangana State at its own risk in the 2014 elections. Thus, the bonanza of five new berths in the Union cabinet, is like killing two birds at shot — put the T affair on the back burner and also checkmate YSR Congress — on the eve of the 2014 electoral battle. (NSS)