Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is all set to expand his six-month-old Cabinet on Tuesday, official sources said.
The expansion and reshuffle was primarily aimed at giving representation to two important districts of Mehbubnagar and Khammam in the Cabinet, which had gone unrepresented so far.The new Ministers will be sworn in at Raj Bhavan between 10 am and 11 am.At the same time, the expansion will also enable the Chief Minister to allocate some key portfolios to the new Ministers. There are number of key portfolios without any Minister. These include Power, Civil Supplies, Road and Buildings, Women and Child Welfare and labour. Two ministers were also handling additional charge and they were also likely to be allocated some new Ministries. The Telangana Cabinet has only 12 Ministers including the Chief Minister. As per the norms, the Cabinet could have a maximum strength of 18 and six more Ministers are likely to find a place.
Several names are doing rounds as possible addition to the Cabinet. From Mehbubnagar, Jupally Krishna Rao, lakshma Reddy and Srinvas Goud are in the race and one of them is likely to get a berth. From Khammam, former Minister and former Telugu Desam Party leader Tummala Nageshwara Rao is likely to be inducted. He had recently joined the TRS and holds considerable sway in his district.Mehbubnagar and Khammam are two of the districts where the TRS does not have much clout and KCR was trying to build his party's base in those areas.
Similarly, KCR is also likely to give a chance to some of the strong contenders from the districts of Adilabad, Nizamabad, Warangal and Karimnagar in north Telangana, the stronghold of the TRS. From Warangal, names of Konda Srekha and Chandulal are doing round. Koppula Eshwar was a strong contender from Karimnagar while from Adilabad either former Minister N Indirakiran Reddy or Kova lakshmi are likely to find a place. Indirakiran Reddy was elected to the State Assembly on BSP ticket but he later joined the TRS. From Nizamabad, Gampa Govardhan, Ravinder Reddy and Ganesh Gupta are among the contenders.