HYDERABAD: Injecting a fresh dose of adrenaline into governance and the TRS machinery, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday brought in his son and TRS working president K T Rama Rao, and his nephew T Harish Rao, who are known for their efficiency, into the state Cabinet, to face future political and administrative challenges, besides opening the doors for the first time to two women — P Sabita Indra Reddy and Sathyavathi Rathod — after the formation of Telangana state in 2014.
Another hallmark of the Cabinet expansion was social re-engineering that KCR had undertaken to take most of the important communities on board which have been nursing a grouse that they were either under-represented or ignored completely. The 18-member Cabinet now has 11 members belonging to forward castes, which is about 62% of the total number. They are: Velamas (4), Reddys (6) and Kamma (1).
The others in the Cabinet were: BCs (4), SCs, STs and Muslim minorities (one each).
It is expected that the new-look Cabinet would not only make the governance gallop, but also make the TRS strong in the face of the renewed onslaught by the BJP, which is gunning for power in the state by 2023.
The Cabinet expansion came nine months after KCR rode to power on the crest of a popular wave in his favour in December last year. The Cabinet is now poised to take the governance of the state to a new orbit, which has lately taken a hit in the absence of any experienced minister taking the lead. Tamilisai Soundararajan, who was sworn in as Telangana’s governor in the morning, administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new Cabinet members at a function at Raj Bhavan here on Sunday at 4.15 pm, as it was an auspicious hour.
The full complement of the 18-member Cabinet, including the chief minister, now has TRS working president and KCR’s son KT Rama Rao, his nephew T Harish Rao, both of whom earned a name that they could make the government up and running in the first innings of the TRS government.
As expected, KTR and Harish Rao back in Cabinet
The other four members of the Cabinet who were sworn in on Sunday are P Sabita Indra Reddy (Maheswaram-Rangareddy), Satyavathi Rathod (MLC), Gangula Kamalakar (Karimnagar) and Puvvada Ajay Kumar (Khammam).When KCR expanded his Cabinet after coming to power for a second term last year, he excluded Rama Rao and Harish Rao as he had too many irons in the fire at that time, including exploring the possibility of playing a bigger role at the Centre as the architect of the Federal Front. It was then given to understand that KCR was grooming KTR to step into his shoes if an opportunity presented itself to him to move to Delhi as leader of the Federal Front.
After his national dream came apart with the BJP steam-rolling its way to power for a second term at the Centre with a brute majority, KCR confined himself to the State and contemplated reconstituting his Cabinet, but he could not get around to do it since several elections followed one after the other, forcing him to put the expansion on the back burner.
After KCR took over the reins of the state government in December last year for a second term, the absence of KT Rama Rao and Harish Rao was painfully felt. Though Rama Rao was subsequently made working president of the TRS, it had its own limitations when it came to governance. Similarly, Harish Rao, who was known for his efficiency in making the government race forward, too, was kept on the bench with the result that KCR himself had to attend to everything. As other ministers lacked experience and abhorred elbow grease, the officials too began looking to the chief minister for instructions, which led the government to lose steam as it tied to move forward.
The induction of KT Rama Rao has long been overdue and there has been pressure on the chief minister to take him back into the government, not only from partymen, but also from the industrial sector. AIMIM chief Asauddin Owaisi, who is an ally of KCR, too tweeted that he wanted to see KTR back in the government. In KCR’s first innings, KTR handled the Industries and Information Technology portfolios with a flourish, earning encomiums from all. Similarly, Harish Rao too left a mark in administration, handling the all-too-important portfolio of Irrigation, and worked hardto see that the Kaleswaram Lift Irrigation Scheme, the flagship programme of the government, was almost in
place before the end of KCR’s first term.
By inducting Sabita Indra Reddy and Satyavathi Rathod, KCR has kept his promise of taking two women into his Cabinet while speaking in the Assembly in the recent past. Though it was known that Sabita would find her way into his Cabinet on the day she was invited into the TRS along with other Congress MLAs, the induction of Satyavathi Rathod, however, was not very certain till recently, though she happens to be a powerful leader in Mahabubabad district, having a considerable following among the lambadas.
As far as Sabita is concerned, she had the record of being minister for mines and geology in 2004-2009 and minister for home in 2009-2014 during the Congress regime. Incidentally, she happened to be India’s first woman home minister of a state. As she has a substantial following in Rangareddy district, her promotion as a minister is expected to give the necessary fillip to the party. Though the present Cabinet has five Reddys, yet KCR chose to take Sabita Indra Reddy too, since in Rangareddy district, Reddys happen to be the dominant community. This apart, Sabita could also be shown as one who was given a Cabinet berth in the women’s quota.
The other woman in the Cabinet is Satyavathi Rathod, who was essentially from the TDP stock. After she was denied an Assembly ticket to contest from Dornakal in 2018, Satyavathi was taken into the legislative council to please her as she was at that time very upset over the party preferring DS Redya Naik for allotment of a ticket to contest from Dornakal.
Satyavathi, who hails from a Thanda near Gundrathimadugu in Mahabubabad district, was favoured since picking a lambada from Adilabad would prove to be counterproductive as the population of Adivasis there was more and they have a running feud with lamabadas over the latter being retained in the list of STs.
KCR’s social re-engineering has come to the fore once again as he cherry-picked Gangula Kamalakar, who represents Karimnagar in the Assembly to be his Cabinet colleague. Kamalakar is a munnuru kapu, a BC community which is numerically strong in Karimnagar, Adilabad and Nizamabad districts. Till now, there was no munnuru kapu in the Cabinet and the little importance given to this segment of the population had made the TRS pay a heavy price of losing Nizamabad and Karimnagar to BJP munnur kapu candidates in the recent LS elections.
In Khammam, which continues to Andhra Pradesh, Puvvada Ajay Kumar had to be accommodated since he belonged to the powerful Kamma community in his district, whose members are originally from Andhra Pradesh. The other Kamma leader from the district, Nama Nageswara Rao, is an MP representing Khammam in the Lok Sabha. Similarly, KCR has appointed Serilingapalli MLA Arikepudi Gandhi from Rangareddy district as a whip of the party, as he understands the influence kammas have on Andhras who have settled in Hyderabad and elsewhere in the State.
KTR and Harish Rao return to governance at last
After KCR took over the reins of the state government in December 2018 for a second term, the absence of KT Rama Rao and Harish Rao was painfully felt since both leaders had made a mark in KCR’s first innings