In the first expansion-cum-reshuffle after coming to power in 2014, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday inducted his son Nara Lokesh and 10 others into the Cabinet, while dropping five Ministers.
Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new Ministers at a grand ceremony near Legislature Building complex at Velagapudi near Vijayawada on Sunday.
The ceremony began with administration of oath to the Telugu Desam party (TDP) A.P. president Kimidi Kala Venkat Rao (Srikakulam) at 9.20 a.m. Mr. Lokesh took oath as Minister next at dot 9.22 a.m. — the 'muhurtam' fixed for the Cabinet expansion. After taking oath Mr. Lokesh sought blessings from his father and the Governor.
TDP politburo member S. Chandramohan Reddy, Pitani Satyanarayana (West Godavari), who had quit the Congress and joined the TDP on the eve of 2014 elections, and YSR Congress MLAs who crossed over to the TDP were among the members inducted into the Cabinet on Sunday. Ch. Adinarayana Reddy, Ravu Venkata Sujaya Krishna Ranga Rao, N. Amarnath Reddy (Chittoor) and Bhuma Akhila Priya also took oath as Ministers. The others who took the oath include, TDP MLAs Kaula Srinivasulu, Nakka Anandbabu and K.S. Jawahar (West Godavari).
Among those newly inducted Cabinet Ministers, Mr. Kala Venkat Rao, Mr. Chandramohan Reddy (Nellore) and Mr. Pitani Satyanarayana had already served as Ministers in the undivided Andhra Pradesh.
Ms. Akhil Priya, whose father and TDP legislator Bhuma Nagi Reddy died following a cardiac arrest last month, was the lone woman to be inducted into the Cabinet. The 26-year-old was elected to the Assembly in a by-election from Allagadda in Kurnool district after her mother Shobha Nagi Reddy's died in a road accident during an election campaign in 2014.
Mr. Naidu dropped five Ministers — Palle Raghunath Reddy, R. Kishore Babu, B. Gopalakrishna Reddy, P. Sujata and K. Mirnalini — and inducted 11 of them to take the strength of his Cabinet to 26. Mr. Lokesh's mother Bhuvaneswari, wife Brahmini, father-in-law and maternal uncle and actor N. Balakrishna and other family members also attended the ceremony.
Mr. Lokesh, the Chief Minister’s only son, was elected to the State legislative council in March. The 34-year-old graduate from Stanford Business School is the general secretary of the TDP.
Nineteen Ministers, including two from TDP's ally Bharatiya Janata Party, took oath along with Mr. Naidu in 2014.
