The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : YSR may go slow on Cabinet expansion

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Sunday, Aug 01, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

YSR may go slow on Cabinet expansion

By W. Chandrakanth

HYDERABAD, JULY 31. The Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, may not prefer a Cabinet expansion, as expected, this month. Likewise, there may be a delay in filling nominated posts to corporations too to avoid acrimony among party leaders.

Though there is tremendous pressure on the Chief Minister to go ahead with the expansion, Dr. Reddy is taking no chances and is planning to gauge the mood of party leaders to contain the possible `political damage' that the expansion may cause.

The 24-member team of Dr. Reddy was further strengthened with the induction of six TRS MLAs. This had led to much bitterness among the Congress leaders, particularly those hailing from Telangana and they in turn trained their guns against the TRS leadership.

There are several problems for the Chief Minister in going ahead with the expansion exercise now. Apart from pressures from New Delhi, he has to contend with pressure from different groups in several districts. West Godavari, Chittoor, Mahabubnagar, Khammam and Hyderabad are unrepresented in the Cabinet now.

While Chittoor is the toughest proposition with several senior leaders getting elected to the Assembly this time, there is a peculiar problem with West Godavari district as all Congress MLAs elected from here are first timers.

In the case of Hyderabad, there is a TRS Minister thus blocking the chances of others. However, it does not make political sense in not having a Congress Minister from the capital.

The induction of the TRS MLAs has queered the pitch for some senior Congress leaders from Telangana too. Even "sure to be there" candidates are now apprehensive over their chances as pressure from coastal Andhra leaders is mounting on the Chief Minister not to yield their `quota' to Telangana Congress MLAs.

Those who have made "sacrifices" by foregoing party ticket are a frustrated lot as the promise of accommodating them in nominated posts is yet to materialise.

The upbeat mood in the Congress camp is slowly giving way to "depression" leading to snide remarks in private from some leaders.

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Andhra Pradesh