Move is meant to ‘contain’ the BJP which is trying to poach on TRS leaders.
HYDERABAD: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) has expanded his nine-month-old Cabinet by reinducting his son K.T. Rama Rao (KTR) and party strongman and nephew T. Harish Rao and four others, primarily to “contain” the Bharatiya Janata Party which is aggressively trying to poach on ruling TRS leaders who are unhappy with their supremo.
However, this Cabinet expansion, originally planned to be a reshuffle, on 8 September, has fuelled dissidence instead. The rise in tone and tenor of ministerial aspirants since last Sunday indicates that the expansion has only added, instead of lessening, problems for KCR, ahead of elections to civic bodies and the prestigious Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) soon.
KCR had kept aside his son KTR from the Cabinet after he came to power last December, but made him working president of ruling TRS. This is a No 2 slot in the hierarchy of TRS, next only to president KCR. Along with him, another senior legislator Harish Rao, too, was denied a berth in the Cabinet to prove that there was no scope for nepotism in the TRS government.
However, the situation changed after TRS lost seven out of 17 MPs in the April Lok Sabha elections, including the prestigious Nizamabad seat from where the Chief Minister’s daughter and sitting MP K. Kavitha was defeated by BJP’s novice Dharmapuri Aravind. TRS bagged just nine MPs after helping its ally, AIMIM one seat and losing four to BJP and three to Congress.
These reversals in parliamentary elections triggered clamour within the party to bring back Harish, popular among ordinary workers and legislators who are in the TRS right from its inception 18 years ago. KTR, urbane and educated, is popular among elite circles, but has earned an image of being inaccessible to the lower rung cadre, whereas they have a rapport with Harish.
Also, efforts made by the BJP leaders to poach on TRS lawmakers and senior leaders after the Lok Sabha polls have alerted the Chief Minister. As per initial reports, he wanted to include six and sack two or three ministers for their poor performance or questionable loyalties. Names of Health Minister Etela Rajender, Labour Minister M. Malla Reddy and Endowments Minister A. Indrakaran Reddy figured among this list.
However, the sudden outbursts of Etela Rajender last week and a veiled warning against attempts to remove him had sent shock waves in the party. Usually docile in nature, Rajender, who was with KCR right from 2001, stunned one and all through his harsh remarks. He was promptly lauded for his so-called revolt by local BJP leaders. Following conciliatory moves by the TRS leadership, KCR not only dropped the idea of Etela Rajender, but anyone from his Cabinet. He restricted the exercise only to add six new faces. Besides KTR and Harish, the CM picked two women—Sabita Indra Reddy (education), who defected from the Congress, Satyavathi Rathod-ST MLC (women development), P. Ajay (transport) and Gangula Kamalakar (BC welfare).
With these additions, the Telangana Cabinet reached its full strength of 18. If KCR wants to add any in future, he will have to remove an equal number of ministers. The latest expansion has opened the gates to dissidence from several legislators who were waiting for ministerial berths. Senior among them is MLC and former home minister Naini Narasimha Reddy who was offered chairman of public sector RTC.
Reddy, while talking to media on the first day of the budget session, expressed unhappiness over him being denied a berth in the Cabinet and said that he was not interested in RTC chairman post. “The post doesn’t have any juice (means, no real power) and I don’t want it, I was offered a minister post and my son-in-law (Srinivas Reddy) an MLC by KCR,” lamented Narasimha Reddy, a founder member of TRS.
Another former minister and TRS MLA Jogu Ramanna, too, went into sulking and disappeared from his home on the day of Cabinet expansion as he was denied a berth. Appearing two days later, Ramanna, an OBC leader from Adilabad district, wept in front of media cameras and said that he was treated unfairly. So is another TRS MLA Mynampalli Hanumanth Rao who, too, went incommunicado since Monday.
Capping them all, Shakeel Amir Mohammad, a two-time TRS M LA from Bodhan in Nizamabad district on Thursday called on BJP MP from Nizamabad Aravind and held secret talks for an hour. Shakeel, who too expected a Cabinet berth, told media that he was the only Muslim MLA in the TRS, but was denied a minister post.
There was speculation that Shakeel would be joining the BJP by Monday, a day before the BJP wanted to stage a massive meeting either in Nizamabad or Hyderabad, marking the then Nizam’s surrender to the Indian army on 17 September 1948. However, firefighting efforts by KTR yielded results and Shakeel declared that he won’t leave TRS as “KCR is my Godfather”.
KCR and KTR are on a drive to see that none of the disgruntled legislators from TRS left the party for the time being, but it may be difficult for them to contain them as there are at least 20 aspirants for Cabinet berths. It would have to be seen if they would be content with alternative posts like legislative panel chairperson or chairmen of public sector undertakings in lieu of minister posts.