No Place for Telugu States in Union Cabinet Reshuffle

The latest Union Cabinet reshuffle has come as a huge shocker to the Telugu people as no one from the Telugu states was inducted in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet.

Earlier, speculations were doing rounds that two leaders from the Telugu states will be given ministries as the lone minister from Telangana Bandaru Dattatreya resigned ahead of Cabinet rejig. All allies however have been left out of the cabinet reshuffle as the NDA leadership chose 9 new ministers from the BJP only.

In the wake of no Telugu leader getting inducted in council of ministers, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to be promoted to Cabinet rank. Power Minister Piyush Goyal and Petroluem Minister Dharmendra Pradhan are two other Ministers of State with Independent Charge who are expected to be promoted to the Union Cabinet.

The 9 new ministers are: Satya Pal Singh (ex-Mumbai Police chief ), retired diplomat Hardeep Puri, retired IAS officer KJ Alphons, former home secretary RK Singh, Ashwini Kumar Choubey (Bihar), Shiv Pratap Shukla (Uttar Pradesh), Virendra Kumar (Madhya Pradesh), Anant Kumar Hegde (Karnataka) and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (Rajasthan). They will take oath as new ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan at 10 this morning.

6 ministers resigned to make way for the new faces. A new Defence Minister is expected to be appointed with Arun Jaitley retaining the Finance portfolio. Suresh Prabhu is expected to give up the Railways portfolio and get another ministry.

Bandaru Dattatreya, who was the Minister of State (independent charge) for Labour and Employment, is likely to be given a Governor’s post.