Naidu says Muslim MLA will find a place in Cabinet

This revives hopes of a long list of aspirants of an expansion happening soon.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s assurance on Saturday on inducting a Muslim legislator into the Cabinet has revived hopes of a long list of aspirants that the much-awaited expansion will happen soon.

Mr. Naidu’s Cabinet now has 20 Ministers, including himself, leaving scope for accommodating six more in tune with the Second Administrative Reforms Committee’s recommendation.

Mr. Naidu has scrupulously avoided expansion and a rejig exercise though the Ministry is 21 months old and is quite unhappy with the performance of some of his Cabinet colleagues, a ward of one of them being involved in a controversy.

Tough message

Mr. Naidu has a definite strategy in putting off this crucial exercise, even while allowing speculation over expansion being imminent, party sources averred.

Apparently he wants to send a strong ‘perform or perish’ message to the Ministers while keeping many a party legislator and fresh entrants from the YSR Congress guessing. Secondly, the carrot of expansion could be held out to attract more legislators from the YSR Congress.

Yet there is feeling among a large section of the party legislators that this is the best time for expansion with the TDP government completing two years in June, more and more YSRC legislators showing interest in joining the ruling party and chairmanship of many of the public corporations having been completed.

The expansion at this juncture could consolidate the party in the State, so goes the argument. Mr. Naidu himself having confirmed that a berth would go to a Muslim, “whenever the expansion happens,” they expect the eagerly-awaited event sooner than later.

Caste equations

There are two Muslim legislators — M. A. Sharif, MLC, one of the senior party leaders and Jaleel Khan, Vijayawada West YSRC MLA who has crossed over to the TDP recently.

Apart from the Muslim community, Scheduled Tribe too remains unrepresented in the Cabinet and the choice boils down to M. Srinivas Rao, MLA of Polavaram (ST) and Sandhya Rani, MLC.

In order to fill the four remaining berths, it is going to be quite a task for the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister as several senior party legislators, a couple of first-timers and those who have shifted loyalties from the YSRC to the TDP recently are waiting in the wings for his call.

Moreover, there is a feeling that Kapus, who are in now agitation mode, Backward Classes and Reddys too should get more berths in the Cabinet.