Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Sunday inducted six members into his Cabinet, taking the number of ministers to 18, PTI reported. The expanded Cabinet has two women members.

The chief minister’s son KT Rama Rao was given the Information Technology, Industries and Municipal Administration departments, while nephew T Harish Rao got the Finance portfolio. The two women members were Sabitha Indra Reddy and Satyavathi Rathod. Reddy will head the education department, and Rathod will be the minister for the welfare of scheduled tribes, women and children.

The other two members of the Cabinet were Karimnagar MLA Gangula Kamalakar and Khammam MLA P Ajay Kumar. Kamalakar was allotted the Welfare, Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs portfolios, and Kumar got the transport department.

The ministers were administered oath by Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, who herself was sworn in on Sunday.

Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014, and K Chandrashekar Rao formed the state’s first government. His first Cabinet had his son KT Rama Rao in the same portfolio that he was allotted on Sunday. Harish Rao had held the irrigation portfolio in that tenure.

Reddy has also been a minister earlier. She had served as home minister in the previous Congress government in the united Andhra Pradesh.

K Chandrashekar Rao was re-elected for a second term in December. He and Mohammad Mahmood Ali were the only ministers for two months, until he added 10 members in February. His son and nephew were notable omissions in that Cabinet, and there was no woman minister, like the first tenure.


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