Kalingas miffed over denial of Cabinet berth

Srikakulam: Kaling community leaders are unhappy over non-inclusion of TDP Amadalavalasa MLA Kuna Ravi Kumar into the state Cabinet. They expected that the TDP national president and Chief Minister N. Chandra Babu Naidu recognised services of the Ravi Kumar when in opposition and in elections. He won against the YSRCP candidate and Speaker Tammineni Sitaram.

Speaking at a press conference here on Thursday, Kalinga community leaders Hanumanthu Krishna Rao, P Janardhana Rao and others explained that the community population is more than 15 lakh across the state and having largest chunk of voters in Srikakulam district, the community sees Ravi Kumar is their representative.

“As an engineering graduate, Ravi Kumar is an able leader and has the capability to tackle the issues. Such leader should have been inducted into the Cabinet to serve better the people across the state as well as district. It also helps in strengthening TDP in the district too,” the said.

They said Cabinet berths were provided to their community in the previous governments and only this time they were denied a berth. Apart from Srikakulam district, Kalinga voters are in considerable numbers in Visakhapatnam city, East and West Godavari districts, Gudivada, Machilipatnam, Gunturu districts also, they said.