Election arithmetic: BCs, SCs, ST and Muslim form 70% of Jagan cabinet 2.0

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy's cabinet 2.0 of 25 ministers took oath on Monday, with the induction of 14 new faces.

Jagan's social engineering saw 10 MLAs from the Backward Communities and five from the Schedules Castes, one ST, and one Muslim make it to the team. This new squad would lead the ruling YSRCP into the next Assembly elections two years away.

While there are four women in the new council, there is no representation given to four 'forward castes' – Brahmin, Vysya, Kshatriya and Kamma. However, there are four Reddys, from Jagan's own community, and four from the numerically important Kapus, the other two 'forward castes' in the state.

Jagan's strategy of reconstituting his team midway through his five-year term and thus keeping the maximum possible legislators happy was however met with some rebellion.

Also read: Jagan to have five deputy CMs, Dalit woman made Home Minister again

Mekathoti Sucharita, who was the state's home minister till last week, has announced that she would resign from her Assembly membership "but would continue in the YSRCP." Yet, there is no official confirmation of her resignation.

Another outgoing minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy who on Sunday indicated to the party leadership that he would step down as MLA has softened after a meeting with the CM on Monday evening. Earlier, two rounds of talks with YSRCP general secretary SRK Reddy failed to pacify him.

A senior legislator and Jagan's confidant since the YSRCP formation in 2011, Balineni, the now-former energy, environment minister is said to be also miffed that Adimulapu Suresh, another minister from the same undivided Prakasam district retained in the cabinet.

“I am a YSR, Jagan and YSRCP loyalist. It is natural for anyone to be disquieted when the minister post is taken away. But it is wrong to say that I will resign. I will work in the party as per the CM's wishes, to improve the YSRCP tally from the district. There are no differences,” Balineni told reporters outside the CM's camp office at Tadepalli.

The AP Legislative Assembly with a strength of 175 MLAs can have a maximum of 26 ministers, including the chief minister, in the cabinet. All the 24 ministers (one berth was vacant with the recent demise of Mekapati Goutham Reddy) had quit on April 7 to enable the chief minister to rejig his team.

Though initially it was said that the new team could have only 2-3 ministers from the old team, 11 of them have been retained keeping their seniority, caste representation etc in view.

As Jagan gave a final shape to the list on Sunday, protests erupted in a few parts of the state where hopeful MLAs were denied the berth.

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