State Cabinet expansion round the corner

Hyderabad: With the merger of Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in Telangana Rashtra Samithi Legislature Party (TRSLP) is certain, the pending cabinet expansion is likely to take place in a week or 10 days and the decks are cleared for the Congress senior legislator P Sabitha Indra Reddy to get a ministerial berth in Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's cabinet soon.

Sabitha along with her son P Karthik Reddy switched loyalties to KCR after the senior Congress leader is assured of ministerial post in KCR's cabinet. Twelve Congress MLAs submitted letter to the Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy urging him to merge the CLP with TRSLP. Once it is approved, the strength of the ruling party in the Assembly will be increased to 104 including the nominated MLA in the House of 118 (one vacancy). Sources said that the speaker may issue bulletin on the merger and this would pave way for the expansion of KCR's cabinet.

Earlier, TRS had won 88 seats and after elections two Independent MLAs joined the ruling party taking the tally to 90. Later, one after other 12 Congress MLAs pledged support to the pink party taking the tally to 102. Already one of the two TDP MLAs have also decided to support TRS and taking the tally to 104 including nominated MLA.

Now the House has seven MIM MLAs, six Congress MLAs and one MLA each from TDP and BJP. TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy had resigned from Huzurnagar Assembly constituency after he won from Nalgonda parliamentary constituency.

Sources said that the Chief Minister KCR had deliberately delayed the expansion of cabinet only to accommodate couple of ministers from the rebel camp of the Congress party. There is no woman candidate in KCR's cabinet and chief minister had already made announcement in the Assembly that there would be two women in the cabinet.

Sources said that Sabitha Indra Reddy is likely to get chance as one of the two women candidates. Similarly, there are talks that another Congress MLA Vanama Venkateshwara Rao may also get cabinet berth. There are also talks about TDP leader Sandra Venkata Veeraiah may also get chance in the cabinet. Sources said that Sandra had decided to join TRS with the assurance of cabinet berth. He had already met the Chief Minister KCR and had discussions in this regard, sources said.

Sources said that the TRS chief did not want to face the embarrassment of giving ministerial post to other party leaders. During the first term, KCR had inducted T Srinivas Yadav, who continued to be TDP MLA for entire term. This time, the TRS chief asked the MLAs to resign and join the party. However, with majority of the MLAs on their side, the rebel MLAs gave merger proposal to the speaker and this would make it easier for the Congress leaders to get minister posts, sources said.