Hyderabad: The allocation of portfolios to two cabinet ministers and three ministers of state from the Telugu-speaking states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh falls into a pattern.
For instance, the coal and mines portfolios, which has been allotted to G. Kishan Reddy, was held in the past by Dasari Narayana Rao as minister of state in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance-I government of Manmohan Singh. He held the post twice from 2004 to 2008 during his two terms as Rajya Sabha member.
The Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate had booked cases against Rao for taking a bribe from Jindal Steel and Hindalco in the allocation of coal blocks in Jharkhand and Odisha respectively.
Kishan Reddy’s appointment as coal minister is especially significant for Telangana in the context of the expansion plans of the state-owned Singareni Collieries Company Limited.
The chairman and managing director of the company, N. Balram, told The Wire that at least three open cast mine projects proposed by the company at Kothagudem, Illandu and Tadicherla in Telangana are pending clearances from the ministry of coal and mines. The projects had got the environment and the coal secretaries’ approval.
Balram hoped that with Kishan Reddy at the helm, the company would not only get these clearances but also claim two other open cast mines given to private companies at Koyyagudem and Sattupalli, as the firms are not able to execute them, leading to time overrun.
He also expressed the hope that the ministry will expedite the clearance of a ten million capacity open cast mine proposed to be excavated by the company at Angul in Odisha, adding that the company will plan similar projects abroad with his help and that it hoped to step up the generation capacity of its 1,200 MW power plant at Jaipur in Adilabad by setting up two more units of 800 MW each.
Civil aviation minister K. Rammohan Naidu of Telugu Desam Party (TDP), who was elected from Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh, will hold a subject that was earlier headed by P. Ashok Gajapati Raju.
A scion of the royal family of Vizianagaram, Raju held the civil aviation portfolio in the Narendra Modi government from 2014 till the TDP pulled out of the National Democratic Alliance in 2018 over the refusal of special category status to Andhra Pradesh following the bifurcation of the state.
The subject was reassigned to Jyotiraditya Scindia, who by coincidence got the development of north eastern region portfolio now from Kishan Reddy.
Rammohan Naidu is the youngest cabinet minister at 35 and is the son of former Union minister and TDP leader K. Yerran Naidu, who died in a car accident.
Bandi Sanjay Kumar, a second-time MP from Karimnagar in Telangana, is a new minister of state (MoS) in the home affairs ministry. The post was held by Kishan Reddy in the past and much earlier by Ch. Vidyasagar Rao, who was also a Karimnagar MP.
The latter was inducted by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as an understudy to then-home minister L.K. Advani in another BJP-led government supported by the TDP. Thus, Sanjay becomes the third home MoS from Telangana.
Kishan Reddy, who represents Secunderabad, was home MoS initially, but was given independent charge in the same capacity in the tourism, culture and heritage and development of north eastern region ministries.
Pemmasani Chandrasekhar of the TDP, who won from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, has been made MoS of rural development as well as of information and broadcasting.
Incidentally, former vice-president M. Venkaiah Naidu was the Union minister for rural development in Vajpayee’s cabinet, until he became BJP president in 2004.
In his next innings as Union minister in Modi’s cabinet from 2014 to 2016, Naidu held the information and broadcasting portfolio.
Chandrasekhar is the richest MP among the 543 newly elected members of parliament with declared assets of Rs 5,705 crore. He is an NRI medical doctor who had a flourishing practice in the US.
Bhupati Raju Srinivasa Varma, who was elected as TDP candidate from the Narsapuram constituency in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, is a new MoS of heavy industries and of steel, posts held by A. Sai Pratap of the Congress in the UPA-I government.
Hence, all five ministers find precedence in their assignments from leaders of the two states who held them in the past.
