Amaravati: Balancing Council of Ministers tough task ahead

Amaravati: Now that the Rajya Sabha elections are over and all the four YSRCP nominees, Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose, Mopidevi Venkata Ramana, Ayodhya Rami Reddy and Parimal Nathwani, got elected comfortably, questions regarding the replacement for the two Ministers who sailed to RS have begun to make rounds.

Bose and Mopidevi belong to Backward Classes and it will be interesting to see whether the vacant Cabinet berths will again go to the BCs? A section among the YSRCP leadership is arguing that Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy will replace the two berths with BCs alone to maintain the caste and regional balance of the Cabinet.

Bose is from East Godavari district and Mopidevi is from Guntur. Names of MLAs from Godavari districts and North coastal region are making rounds as replacements for Pilli and Mopidevi.

Jagan had crafted his Cabinet by taking eight from the backward classes, five from SCs/STs and minority communities, four each from the Kapu and Reddy communities, one each from Kamma, Kshatriya and Vysya communities.

But, will he choose BCs as replacement or go for others is to be seen. There is a criticism against Jagan by the TDP that he is anti-BC. If he switches to other castes now in filling up the vacancies created by the resignation of the two Ministers, it would only add fuel to the fire (of TDP). But, doing so could also lead to disappointment among the others.

Soon after taking over as the CM of Andhra Pradesh and forming his council of ministers last year, YSRC president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy announced that 90 per cent of the present cabinet ministers would be replaced by new faces after two-and-a-half years.

There is also a talk that Jagan might elevate his hardcore loyalist and Minister for Agriculture Kurasala Kanna Babu as the Deputy CM, in place of Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose and reshuffle the portfolios of others.