Cabinet Expansion Likely Month-end or Feb First Week—Eight to get Chance

Hyderabad, Jan.27 (Maxim News): The conclusion of five day yagam of Chief Minister, K. Chandrasekhar Rao has rekindled the hopes of several cabinet berth aspirants in the state.

The aspirants are expecting that the cabinet expansion is likely to take place either on January 31,2019 or the first week of February. They opine that the cabinet expansion will be a limited exercise for the present, instead of the permitted total limit of 17 ministers as per the Constitution. They reason that the cabinet expansion is inevitable for varied reasons. They say that State will soon have budget session of the Legislature, to present the vote on account budget. The budget session is likely to be held either in the third or the fourth week of February.

The ruling party leaders feel that the budget session could not generally be conducted without the state cabinet. “Although, the state had the history of the chief minister presenting the budget, it may not be repeated by our CM. The reason for this is that the full cabinet has not been formed since the last 45 days, following the election results. This has made the ruling TRS party face the wrath of opposition political parties. The Congress party leaders have already lodged a complaint on the issue. We strongly feel it will now be expanded at any moment to avoid any more criticism,” a senior Party Leader who did not want to be quoted told this correspondent.

Besides this, the other reasons like announcement of election schedule for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and the presentation of vote on account budget by the central government are also reportedly leaving no room for the Chief minister to expand his cabinet. It is widely speculated that as many as eight MLAs of the party might get the chance to become the ministers in the first cabinet expansion. The remaining Minister Berth aspirants are likely to get the opportunity in the second phase. The party sources are saying that the second phase of Cabinet expansion will take place only after the Lok Sabha elections in the state.

It is said that the Chief Minister has hinted about the Cabinet Expansion to the Governor yesterday, either on January 31 or February 7.

The names of leaders who have worked as the ministers in the previous cabinet of KCR are doing the rounds as the ministers in the next cabinet of the CM. The names speculated are K. Taraka Rama Rao, Etala Rajender, T. Harish Rao, C. Laxma Reddy, T. Padma Rao, Jogu Ramanna, A.Indrakaran Reddy and Kadiyam Srihari. However, reports are rife that senior party MLAs like Errabelli Dayakar Rao, Koppula Eeswar, Padma Devender Reddy could be surprise picks of the CM in the first phase of the cabinet expansion. (Maxim News)