HYDERABAD : At least two senior ministers are expected to come under the scanner of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao whenever he expands the Cabinet. There are, however, no indications as yet as to when the expansion could happen though Rao was expected to do it within a couple of months after his government came into being in the first week of June.
Informed sources revealed to Express that the Chief Minister has received the “maximum number of complaints” against two ministers though he is also not comfortable with the performance of a few others as well.
Conscious that he has promised a “clean and efficient” administration, the Chief Minister is said to be none too happy over inputs streaming in from various quarters about the activities of the two ministers in question and fears that unless checked, it could dent the image of the government.
Though current indications suggest Rao may not take the extreme step of dropping them from the cabinet, it is more than likely that he could downgrade their ranking or allot relatively unimportant portfolios to send across a “no-nonsense” message. He has already been chiding them privately and sometimes, even publicly but a harsher step seems inevitable.
TRS circles, meanwhile, are engaged in a guessing game on who could make it to the cabinet but not many seem to have clarity as to what the boss is up to. Mahbubnagar, currently unrepresented in the Cabinet, is sure to be on top of KCR’s mind whenever he embarks on the exercise. Jupalli Krishna Rao, who gave up ministerial position in the previous Congress regime and joined the TRS much before the Telangana state became a reality, is likely to be considered. Jadcherla legislator Ch Laxma Reddy is also said to be in the reckoning.
Former minister and TDP leader Tummala Nageswara Rao from Khammam, who joined the TRS recently, is also being discussed as a possible candidate for a cabinet berth. Not a member of either House as of now, Nageswara Rao is expected to be the TRS nominee for election to the Legislative Council through local bodies from Nizamabad district.
NGO leader Devi Prasad, who was not considered for Medak Parliament byelection, is likely to be the MLC candidate via local bodies from Adilabad district. There is, however, no clarity on whether he will be considered for the ministry.