HYDERABAD: Despite nine slots in his Council of Ministers remaining vacant for over a year now, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah appears to be in no mood to fill the vacancies immediately.
"No muhurtam (auspicious time) has been fixed for expansion of the Cabinet," Rosaiah told a press conference here today, on his return from a three-day trip to New Delhi.
"Waiting for a congenial atmosphere" to expand his Cabinet had been Rosaiah’s constant refrain in the last 10 months whenever the issue was raised.
The Chief Minister remained evasive when asked if the muhurtam would come after the by-election process ends in Telangana region on July 30.
Rosaiah’s meeting with Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel and a host of AICC leaders during his New Delhi visit raised hopes of a long-overdue Cabinet expansion.
"It will be taken up at an appropriate time," the Chief Minister remarked when questioned about the Cabinet expansion.
What about the vacant slots in the Cabinet, he was asked. "We will continue to manage the same way as we are doing for the last few months," Rosaiah replied.
Apart from the key finance portfolio, the Chief Minister is also holding charge of other crucial departments like Commercial Taxes, Excise, Power, Infrastructure and Investment, Women Development and Child Welfare.
The current Cabinet of the state was formed on May 25, 2009 with Y S Rajasekhara Reddy as Chief Minister. Following Rajasekhara Reddy’s death in a helicopter crash on September 2 last year, Rosaiah became the Chief Minister on September 3.
He continued with the same set of ministers that worked under Rajasekhara Reddy and did not effect any changes.
One minister Konda Surekha, however, quit the Cabinet in protest against non-appointment of Rajasekhara Reddy’s son Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy as the Chief Minister.
Since then there had been anticipation that Rosaiah would expand/reshuffle his Council of Ministers every time he visited New Delhi for a meeting with the AICC leadership.
It was the political turmoil over Telangana statehood issue that initially delayed the Cabinet expansion.
Subsequently, everyone hoped the exercise would be taken up at the end of the Budget session of state Legislature in April.
It was then speculated that Rosaiah may drop at least six to eight of his current colleagues who were either seen as too 'loyal' to Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy or found wanting in discharge of their official duties.
Many senior legislators and former ministers like J C Diwakar Reddy, D L Ravindra Reddy, Kasu Venkata Krishna Reddy, P Shankar Rao, Marri Shashidhar Reddy and others are eagerly awaiting the Cabinet expansion with the hope that they may make it to Rosaiah’s team.
