KCR expands cabinet, brings back son and nephew

Just in time for the state budget session Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has expanded his cabinet with six more ministers on Sunday taking the total number to eighteen. State’s new governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers at a ceremony in the Rajbhavan here.

KCR roped in  his son Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) working president and former IT minister K Tarakarama Rao (Siricilla) , nephew and former irrigation minister T. Harish Rao (Siddipet), lady home minister  in Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy’s cabinet Patolla Sabitha Indrareddy (Maheswaram) , Satyavathi Rathod ( MLC-Warangal) (ST), Gangula Kamalakar ( Karimnagar), and  Puvvada Ajay Kumar ( Khammam) making the cabinet  formidable.

The present cabinet is also more equitable with two woman ministers in it. The earlier cabinet (2014-2019) had no women minister during his first term attracting huge criticism. The inclusion of KTR and Harish, who played an important role during the first term of KCR’s government, has made the government stable at a time when the KCR’s government is facing flak for its lackluster second term from the opposition.

It also believed that KCR needed his trouble shooter Harish on his side when the BJP is leaving no stone unturned to trouble KCR.  BJP has already brought its party functionary Dr Tamilisai as governor of the state in place of ESL Narasimhan, a man with non political background.

While KTR made strides in the IT sector keeping Hyderabad’s edge over other IT capitals of the country, Harish was key in completing the mega Kaleshwaram project in time as minister for irrigation. While Puvvada is the only minister representing Khammam district, Gangula is the fourth minister from undivided Karimnagar district. Dressed in pink, TRS cadre gathered outside the TRS headquarters and celebrated the occasion by dancing to the tunes of Telangana Teen Mar songs and fired crackers.

The CMO later announced allocation of portfolios to the freshly inducted ministers. While Harish got the finance portfolio, KTR retained IT, Sabitha was given education, Gangula was given BC welfare, Rathod got ST welfare, and Puvvada was given Transportation. The entire cabinet then met at Pragathi Bhavan to ratify the budget for the present financial year. The budget session will start on Monday.