psycopk Posted May 25, 2009 Report Posted May 25, 2009 Vijayawada: It’s party time for Congress legislators in the state, ahead of the cabinet formation. Notwithstanding the decline in the party’s strength in the legislative assembly, it has increased the chances of many Congress leaders getting into the cabinet — one in every three MLAs is likely to get either a ministerial berth or an equivalent post. Sources said chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy is likely to form a team with 43 ministers. In addition to the ministerial berths, there are key posts like assembly speaker, deputy speaker, chief whip, three whips for each region, chairpersons to the regional development boards and chairman of the state-run RTC, which enjoys a cabinet rank. If all these posts are taken into account, the jobs up for grabs are a huge 55 whereas the eligible aspirants are only 157 MLAs from the Congress. The ratio is even less than 1:3 which means there are chances that even one in every two legislators could get some post or the other, explained a senior legislator. The membership of TTD is also being considered. With D K Adikeshavulu Naidu falling out with YSR, his trusted lieutenant B Karunakar Reddy, who lost the election to Chiranjeevi, could come back as TTD chairman, sources indicated. Curiously the competition is far less for some categories when district quota, caste and seniority equations are taken into consideration. For instance, there are only four Kamma legislators — G Aruna Kumari, N Manohar, Gottipati Ravikumar and Daggubati Venkateswara Rao. However, Daggubati may be out of the race as his wife Purandeswari’s chances of joining the Union cabinet are bright. “Two among the three Kamma MLAs are likely to join the cabinet,” a party insider said. Likewise, Jupalli Krishna Rao (Kollapur) is the lone legislator who won the election from the strong Velama community from the entire Telangana. “So, he cannot be ignored,’’ an analyst said.
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