HYDERABAD: Congress MLA Gandra Venkataramana Reddy has been appointed the government's chief whip. The appointment is some compensation for the legislator from Bhoopalapalli in Warangal district after he was not induced into the cabinet last week because of caste considerations.
The post of chief whip fell vacant after incumbent Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka was elected as deputy speaker in June last year. Venkataramana Reddy was hopeful of induction into the cabinet in the recent expansion but the chief minister chose Capt Uttam Kumar Reddy, also from Telangana.
In addition to the chief whip, the ruling party has appointed as many as five government whips. They are: Arepalli Mohan (Manakondur, Karimangar), Eeravathi Anil Kumar (formally a PRP member from Balkonda, Nizamabad), T Jayaprakash Reddy (Sangareddy, Medak), Dronamraju Srinivasa Rao (Vizag South) and Perni Venkatramaiah alias Nani (Machilipatnam).
Hitherto the government had only two government whips. That number has been upped to five now.Rudraraju Padmaraju has been appointed the government whip in the Legislative Council. All these appointments will take effect from Thursday.