After the party’s debacle in Lok Sabha elections and the surprising rise of BJP in Telangana, the Congress high- command seems to be no longer putting trust in Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy. His efforts for cabinet expansion and appointment of new PCC president did not materialise besides his frequent visits to New Delhi during the last one month.
In fact, Revanth Reddy made all arrangements for cabinet expansion on July 4th and also met Governor Radhakrishnan in this regard. He was for about a week in Delhi in order to finalize the list of new ministers to be inducted.
However, the Congress leadership gave a shock to him without giving clearance. Party sources says that it was postponed due to the lack of consensus on new ministers to be inducted. Senior Congress leaders, who also have been camping in Delhi these days have reportedly succeeded in preventing the high-command to give signal for the list prepared by Revanth Reddy.
They are said to have also succeeded in convincing Delhi leaders of the need to check Revanth Reddy’s unilateral decisions. Despite Revanth Reddy’s insistence, party president Mallikarjun Kharge went to Karnataka and KC Venugopal to Kerala without giving him a chance to discuss.
The reason for the postponement is said to be that the party leaders completely agreed with the objections expressed by the senior leaders on the names proposed by CM Revanth Reddy in the expansion of the cabinet. The cabinet is likely to be expanded only after taking into consideration the opinions of everyone in the party.
In the last week of June, CM Revanth Reddy along with Deputy CM Bhatti Vikramarka, Minister Uttamkumar Reddy and state Congress in-charge Dipa Das Munshi had extensive discussions on the expansion of the cabinet and the selection of a new president for PCC.
Presently, combined districts of Adilabad, Nizamabad, Rangareddy and Hyderabad are not represented in the cabinet. Seniors are insisting that these four districts should be given an opportunity first in the expansion. Uttam Kumar Reddy and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy are already in the cabinet from Nalgonda district.
Uttam Kumar Reddy reportedly opposed the move to induct Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, as his elder brother Komatireddy Venkat Reddy is also in the cabinet from the same district. If at all the party is ready to give two ministers in a family, he is stating that his wife Padmavathi should be inducted into the cabinet.
Bhatti Vikramarka is strongly opposing Reddy’s move to induct Chennuru MLA Vivek Venkataswamy, stating that his elder brother is also MLA and grand son is an MP. How many posts to be given in a family?, he is asking.
Seniors are strongly opposing Revanth’s move to induct Danam Nagender, who had been elected as BRS MLA and was defeated as Congress candidate in Lok Sabha polls. They are suggesting that Sri Ganesh had won from the cantonment in the by-election.
