Telangana: KCR expands Cabinet size to 12, two months after election victory
The Cabinet had only two members until now – the chief minister and a home minister.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday added 10 members to his Cabinet almost two months after his party won the Assembly elections by a majority, PTI reported.
Rao was sworn in as chief minister for a second term on December 13, two days after results of the state Assembly elections were declared. Mohammad Mahmood Ali was the only minister to take oath along with Rao, as home minister.
The ministers sworn in on Tuesday included six new faces – S Niranjan Reddy, Koppula Eashwar, Errabelli Dayakar Rao, V Srinivas Goud, Vemula Prashanth Reddy and Ch Malla Reddy. The others were ministers during Rao’s previous tenure as well – A Indrakaran Reddy, Talasani Srinivas Yadav, G Jagadish Reddy and Etela Rajender.
The ministers were administered oath by Governor ESL Narasimhan at the Raj Bhavan.
Notable omissions from the Cabinet were Rao’s nephew T Harish Rao and son KT Rama Rao. Rao’s Cabinet does not have a woman minister, like the last time, according to PTI.
KT Rama Rao was appointed the working president of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi after the party won elections in December.
The state Opposition had criticised Rao for not announcing his Cabinet earlier. “There is zero governance, defunct bureaucracy and complete anarchy in the state. Thousands of files have piled up and the budget is yet to be presented,” state Congress spokesperson Sravan Dasoju had said on Thursday.
According to the lunar calendar, February 19 is Magha Shuddha Pournami, which is considered an auspicious day.