The over-two-month-old Telangana Rashtra Samithi government was expanded on Tuesday with the induction of 10 Ministers at a ceremony that lasted half an hour on the Raj Bhavan lawns. With this, the strength of the K. Chandrasekhar Rao-led Council of Ministers has gone up to 12 and there is scope to take on board six more Ministers, which is likely only after the Lok Sabha elections.
Governor E. S. L. Narasimhan administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new Minitsers, starting with A. Indrakaran Reddy, at 11.30 a.m. in the presence of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and over 1,200 invitees who packed the premises. Mr. Reddy was followed in the order by Mr. T. Srinivas Yadav, Mr. G. Jagdish Reddy, Mr. Eatala Rajender, Mr. S. Niranjan Reddy, Mr. Koppula Easwar, Mr. E. Dayakar Rao, Mr. V. Srinivas Goud, Mr. V. Prashant Reddy and Mr. C. Malla Reddy.
Barring Mr. Rajender, Mr. Srinivas Yadav, Mr. Indrakaran Reddy and Mr. Jagdish Reddy, all are new faces. There is no representation for Khammam district on the Cabinet. The Chief Minister who hailed from Medak also avoided anyone else to represent the district.
The new Ministers took the blessings of Mr Chandrasekhar Rao after being sworn in. Ministers in the previous TRS government, MLAs, MPs and senior officials were present. Chief Secretary S. K. Joshi conducted the proceedings. MIM Syed MLC Amin Jaffri was the lone leader from other parties to attend.
All eyes were on TRS working president K. T. Rama Rao and former Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao, both of whom missed the bus this time. Mr. Rama Rao tweeted his compliments to the new Ministers later, saying “heartiest congratulations. I am confident that you will do your best for Telangana under the able guidance of KCR garu”.
