The seven days of suspense over the acceptance of the resignations of Home Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy and Roads and Buildings Minister Dharmana Prasada Rao ended on Sunday with Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy forwarding their resignation letters to Governor ESL Narasimhan and the latter accepting them the same day.
According to sources, Kiran Reddy on Sunday morning sent the resignations file to Raj Bhavan for the Governor’s approval. As soon as the file had reached him, the head of the state accepted the resignations of Home Minister Sabitha Reddy and Roads and Buildings Minister Dharmana, sources in Raj Bhavan said.
Both Sabitha and Dharmana have been charged by the CBI in the assets case against YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
In fact, after he was named as an accused in the fourth chargesheet filed by the CBI in August last year, Dharmana submitted his resignation to the Chief Minister. But it was not accepted by Kiran Reddy then.
Sabitha also offered to quit after she was named in the fifth chargesheet filed by the CBI last month but the Chief Minister advised her not to do so at that time.
However, following Congress high command’s fresh directive to the Chief Minister to show the door to the tainted ministers from the Cabinet, Kiran Reddy on May 20 told the duo in clear terms that they had to leave the Cabinet.
The portfolios of the outgoing ministers — Home and R&B — have been transferred to the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s jurisdiction. The state government released a government order in this regard on Sunday evening.
Kiran Reddy is likely to overhaul the State Cabinet only after holding crucial discussions with his members of the party high command.
He is expected to leave for Delhi on May 29 in order to take part in an official programme in the national capital and is expected to confabulate with his party top brass on the issue of Cabinet revamp either in the first or second week of June.
Meanwhile, the race for these two coveted portfolios has intensified within the ranks of the Congress party.
Deputy Chief Minister C Damodara Rajanarasimha, ministers K Jana Reddy, D Sridhar Babu, J Geeta Reddy and DK Aruna are said to be in the race for the home portfolio. Rajanarasimha wants to head the home department in tune with the tradition of deputy chief minister holding that portfolio. He undertook a Delhi trip two days ago only to lobby with the party leadership in this regard.
On the other hand, some ministers who are not happy with their present portfolios have also started exerting a considerable amount of pressure on Chief Minister N Kiran Reddy to give them better ministries during the much-awaited reshuffle.