The inordinate delay in the expansion of the Telangana council of ministers by chief minister A Revanth Reddy even after 15 months of the Congress coming to power in the state has caused a lot of discontent in the party, people familiar with the matter said.
On December 7, 2023, Revanth was sworn in as the chief minister of Telangana, after the Congress won the assembly elections held in the state on November 30. Along with him, 11 members took oath as cabinet ministers on the same day.
According to the 91st Constitutional Amendment Act of 2003, the total number of ministers in a state cabinet, including the chief minister, cannot exceed 15% of the total number of members in the state’s legislative assembly.
While the Telangana cabinet can have a maximum of 18 ministers, there are six vacancies in the Revanth Reddy cabinet.
“Initially, there were indications in the party that Revanth Reddy would expand his cabinet within three months of the formation of the government and there was intense lobbying for the cabinet berths by several aspirants among the MLAs and MLCs. But it did not happen, as the high command did not give the green signal for the cabinet expansion,” a senior Pradesh Congress Committee leader (PCC) said on condition of anonymity.
Later, there was a talk in the party that the cabinet expansion would take place after the Lok Sabha election results in June 2024. Though Congress fared reasonably well by winning eight out of 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, the posts in the state cabinet remained vacant.
“The high command has been deferring taking a decision on the Telangana cabinet expansion on one pretext or the other. After the Lok Sabha elections, its focus was on the assembly elections to Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir in October and November last year. Even after these election results, the high command did not give any nod for the Telangana cabinet expansion,” the PCC leader quoted above said.
In the last 15 months, Revanth Reddy went to New Delhi more than 20 times and met the top leaders of the Congress, including AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and AICC general secretary KC Venugopal and others, seeking approval for the cabinet expansion, but all his efforts have gone in vain, the leader stated.
The last time when Revanth Reddy put forth the request for the high command nod for cabinet expansion was on February 5 this year. “There is no cabinet expansion in the immediate future. It may take longer time, but it would be done with the high command’s guidance,” the chief minister said after the meeting, adding that the high command would take into account various permutations and combinations before giving the approval.
The Congress leader quoted above said the lack of a full-fledged cabinet is seriously affecting the administration. There are no ministers for several important subjects like home, higher and school education, municipal administration and urban development, social welfare, minority welfare and labour. All these portfolios, apart from many others, are still with the chief minister.
Meanwhile, some of the existing ministers have been overburdened with additional portfolios – like N Uttam Kumar Reddy is handling major and minor irrigation and civil supplies; Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka is looking after finance, planning and energy, Ponnam Prabhakar both transport and BC welfare and Duddilla Sridhar Babu is holding IT, Industries and Commerce and Legislative affairs.
“It is generally expected that all districts in Telangana should have representation in the cabinet. But till now, there is no minister from combined districts of Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Nizamabad and Adilabad. Among the communities, there is no representation for Muslims in the state cabinet,” the PCC leader said.
The prolonged dilly-dallying by the Congress high command in giving approval to the cabinet expansion in Telangana has caused not only an embarrassment for Revanth Reddy, but also a kind of unrest among the aspirants of the cabinet berth.
Another Congress leader familiar with the development said that in January, about a dozen MLAs of the party held a secret meeting at the farmhouse of a young lawmaker that created a furore in the party. The MLAs were obviously unhappy over the inordinate delay in the cabinet expansion and lack of importance given to the young MLAs.
Following this, Revanth Reddy rushed to New Delhi to apprise the bosses of the growing unrest among the party MLAs over delay in expansion. But there was no response from them and the chief minister had to call for a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party on February 6 to pacify the disgruntled MLAs.
“One of the main reasons for the high command’s indecisiveness in approving the cabinet expansion is that there are too many aspirants for the six vacancies. According to reports from New Delhi, as many as 32 MLAs have been lobbying with the Delhi bosses seeking cabinet berths. And Revanth Reddy has his own list of MLAs to be inducted into the cabinet. The high command is obviously in a tricky situation on how to pick the right candidates,” the second Congress leader quoted above said.
“She (newly-appointed AICC in-charge of Telangana Meenakshi Natarajan) has started interacting with all sections of people and she might come out with a solution on filling up the cabinet gaps soon,” he added.