BackKCR takes oath as Telangana CM for the second term
This time, the cabinet is likely to have a woman minister in its team
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Hyderabad: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K. Chandrashekar Rao was sworn in by governor E.S.L. Narasimhan as the second chief minister of Telangana on Thursday, two days after winning the assembly elections. Md Mahmood Ali, who was deputy chief minister in the previous government, was also allotted the state’s home ministry by Rao.
Rao’s party won the polls with a thumping majority of 88 out of the 119 seats in Telangana, while the Congress won 19, the Telugu Desam Party 2, and the All India Forward Bloc 1, with an independent winning one seat.
The new cabinet ministers would be declared in a week’s time and not everyone from the previous cabinet will be part of the new one, said TRS leaders who did not want to be identified.
Rao can have 18 cabinet ministers, given the total strength of the assembly. The cabinet is expected to have a woman member this time. This is unlike last time when there was not a single woman legislator, which was one of the criticisms that Rao had faced.
Also read: K. Chandrashekar Rao, the new strongman of Telangana
Four cabinet ministers of the previous government failed to retain their seats in the 2018 assembly elections despite the TRS’s huge win. They include P. Mahender Reddy who could not retain the Tandur assembly seat. His internal problems with former TRS member of Parliament (MP) Konda Vishweshwar Reddy (who also raised other issues with Rao and the TRS) had led to the latter’s resignation just days before the 7 December polls.
“Some berths have to be replaced. The brother of P. Mahender Reddy (who was transport minister) might become a minister because he was a giant killer as he managed to defeat A. Revanth Reddy in Kodangal. Other than that, MP Balka Suman, who also contested the state elections and won, might be given a seat. We have to see if anyone, like T. Nageshwar Rao, who is one among those who lost, might be re-inducted as he is close to Rao," said political analyst Palwai Raghavendra Reddy.
A study of the poll results by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Telangana Elections Watch (TEW) also showed that there are only six women MLAs in the assembly, a reduction by three from 2014. The study also said that 73, or 61% of the elected MLAs in the 2018 polls, are facing criminal cases and that a staggering 106 of them, or 89%, are crorepatis.
Also read: After wresting Telangana, KCR chalks out strategy for a non-BJP, non-Congress front
The ADR and TEW study also stated that the legislator with highest declared assets in the Telangana assembly is Congress MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy who won from the Munugode seat, who is worth ₹ 314 crore. He is followed by (Nagarkurnool seat) MLA Marri Janardhan Reddy from the TRS, whose total assets are worth ₹ 161 crore.
In this assembly, 75 of the 119 MLAs who won the 2014 assembly elections were re-elected. In 2014, TRS had won just 63 seats, but the numbers went up to nearly 90 after a huge chunk of MLAs from opposition parties defected to it. The Congress had won 21 (eight defected to TRS) then. The TRS also scheduled a parliamentary meeting with all of its Lok Sabha MPs to discuss the agenda for the ongoing Parliament session.
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