Andhra Pradesh Cabinet Revamp: The new cabinet was sworn in today.
amaravati:
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday reconstituted the state cabinet, appointing 13 new faces and re-enlisting 11 of his first team.
Veteran legislator Dharmana Prasada Rao has also been inducted into the cabinet, making him the top minister.
Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan swore an oath of office and secrecy to 25 cabinet members during a public function near the state secretariat in the capital Amaravati.
By expected lines, no one from the Legislative Council was included in the cabinet.
The new Council of Ministers is composed solely on the basis of caste and community, with the lion’s share of the 10 berths going to backward classes.
Two, including the Chief Minister, are from minority communities, five from Scheduled Castes and one from Scheduled Tribes.
Four from each of the Reddy and Kapu communities have also been inducted.
The cabinet has four female members, one more than the previous one.
Kamma, Kshatriya and Vysya communities that each had one representative in the previous cabinet were now completely disregarded. The Brahmin community was again denied a cabinet berth.
Of the total of 26 districts in the state, at least seven found no representation in the new cabinet.
The ruling YSR Congress described it as the “Social Cabinet”, with 70 percent representation in the BC, SC, ST and minority communities.
When he formed his first cabinet in June 2019, the CM had announced that after two and a half years (December 2021) it would make a renewal and bring in 90 percent new faces, while retaining only 10 percent (3 members).
According to that count, only two ministers apart from the prime minister would be retained, but Jagan brought back 11 from the previous cabinet, who were due to resign on April 7.
Amzath Basha Shaik Bepari and K Narayana Swamy, who served as deputy chief ministers in the previous cabinet, have been reinstated.
Seniors like Botsa Satyanarayana, PRC Reddy, P Viswaroop, A Suresh and Buggana Rajendranath also secured a new berth.
S Appala Raju, Ch Venugopala Krishna, G Jayaram and T Vanita were given a second chance, thanks to caste calculations.
Movie star RK Roja, who was serving her second term as MLA, eventually made it to the cabinet.
Another senior leader Ambati Rambabu, who missed the bus in 2019, also managed this time.
Gudivada Amarnath, P Rajanna Dora, B Mutyala Naidu, Dadisetti Ramalingeswara Rao, KV Nageswara Rao, K Satyanarayana, J Ramesh, V Rajani, M Nagarjuna, K Govardhan Reddy and Usha Sricharan were the others who became new ministers.