It is turning out to be a Reddy versus backward classes battle which may plunge the week-old new government into a deep crisis even as two ministers have already sent in their resignations to the Chief Minister.
The ministers who have been left seething after the allocation of portfolios are now getting ready for a showdown with the Chief Minister at the first formal meeting of the new Cabinet.
“It (Cabinet) is not your private limited company. Do you want the Congress party to survive in Andhra Pradesh or get reduced to its 1994 status (when it won only 27 seats and could not even become the main opposition party),” a senior minister reportedly asked the Chief Minister, expressing serious displeasure over the allocation of portfolios.
The main grouse was that all the plum portfolios (revenue-earning) were allocated to ministers belonging to the Reddy community while those from the backward classes were given insignificant (non-revenue generating) portfolios.
While Reddys got as many as 14 berths in the new Cabinet, the BCs were given just about 10. When it came to allocation of portfolios, prime ones like Finance, agriculture, major irrigation, health, municipal administration and panchayat raj were given to Reddys much to the chagrin of the BC ministers.
Leading the list of dissenters were Botsa Satyanarayana, Dharmana Prasada Rao, Vatti Vasantha Kumar, Ponnala Lakshmaiah and Danam Nagender who got ready to quit their posts. Of course, a Reddy minister, Komatireddi Venkat Reddy, too has joined hands with the BC ministers, sulking over the allocation of Infrastructure and Investments portfolio.
Vatti Vasantha Kumar, who has been shifted from Rural Development to Tourism Department in the new government, was the first to send in his resignation to the Chief Minister minutes after the portfolios were allocated late in the night. In fact, Vatti also resigned from his MLA post as well.
Following in Vatti’s steps, Komatireddi Venkat Reddy too has forwarded his resignation to Kiran Kumar Reddy. Komatireddi has been given the Infrastructure and Investments Department in the new government. He was minister for Information Technology and Communications Department in the previous government.
Sensing trouble, a worried Chief Minister sent his new Finance Minister Aanam Ramanarayana Reddy to placate Vatti, at whose residence more than 10 ministers had gathered for a strategic meeting around midnight. However, Vatti remained firm on his resignation.
The Chief Minister reportedly conveyed through Aanam that the portfolios issue could be discussed at the Cabinet meeting scheduled for Thursday but the sulking ministers were in no mood to relent.
The Chief Minister’s reported contention that some of the senior ministers were given “less important” portfolios only because they were facing allegations of corruption.
“In that case why were such persons taken into the Cabinet in the first place,” a disgruntled minister fumed.
The Chief Minister’s emissary did not have an answer for this and had to make a hasty retreat, informed sources said.
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