Hyderabad: Probably for the first time in several decades, Hyderabad has no direct ministerial candidate in the State Cabinet. This is after none of the Congress leaders from Hyderabad got elected to the Assembly this time. However, the Congress leadership is learned to be considering appointing at least one key leader from Hyderabad as a Minister via nomination to the Telangana Legislative Council.
Of the 15 Assembly constituencies in Hyderabad, the Congress did not win even one seat. A similar situation prevails in the erstwhile Ranga Reddy district where it won only two seats. Though the party secured a decisive mandate from other districts in Telangana, the Congress could not win a single seat in Hyderabad and its adjacent constituencies where the three other main parties – BRS, AIMIM and BJP – have representation.
Under these circumstances, sources said the party leadership was mulling over induction of at least one Congress leader to the Cabinet by making him or her a member of the Legislative Council in the next couple of months.
“With around one-fourth of the State’s population and nearly 60 per cent of the State revenue, Hyderabad is a crucial territory. Though we could not secure any seats, we have some senior and efficient leaders in Hyderabad who have served as Ministers earlier,” a Congress leader said, adding that the party leadership had already made some indications in this regard.
While two seats under the Governor’s quota are already vacant, three BRS MLCs Kadiam Srihari and Padi Kaushik Reddy from MLA quota, Palla Rajeshwar Reddy (Graduates) and Kasireddy Narayan Reddy (Local Bodies), who recently got elected to the State Assembly, are bound to resign to their Council membership after winning as MLAs. Narayan Reddy was with the BRS when he became and MLC and later joined the Congress.
M Anjan Kumar Yadav, Mohammed Azharuddin, Madhu Yashki Goud, Mohammed Shabbir Ali and a couple of senior leaders are said to be frontrunners for MLC seats.
Meanwhile, a few ministers are expected to be inducted into the Cabinet along with A Revanth Reddy who will be sworn-in as the Chief Minister on Thursday. While officials remained tight-lipped over the names, they confirmed that a few MLAs would be inducted into the State Cabinet, which has a full capacity of 18 Ministers. Sources said at least nine MLAs were likely to be inducted into the State Cabinet immediately.
Senior leaders N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, D Anasuya alias Seethakka, Konda Surekha, D Sridhar Babu, Ponnam Prabhakar, G Vivek or his brother G Vinod, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Tummala Nageswara Rao and others are among the frontrunners to the Ministerial berths. Uttam Kumar Reddy, Bhatti Vikramarka, Venkat Reddy, Sridhar Babu and a few other leaders have already met the top functionaries of AICC and conveyed their wish to join the Cabinet.
