HYDERABAD: Since the period of NTR till that of Chandrababu Naidu now, Telugu Desam (TD) ministers in the Union Cabinet never completed a full term in office.
TD ministers were in Centre from the Cabinets of National Front government during NTR’s time, United Front government and the present NDA government in Mr Naidu’s regime. But now, Union ministers P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Y.S. Chowdary were in offi-ce for the longest period th-an the previous TD ministers.
Mr Raju and Mr Chow-dary were in the office for three years and 10 months. But in the past, the TD ministers were in the office for less than two years. Due to political reasons, National Front and United Front governments at the Centre did not complete full-term.
The National Front government was formed at the Centre after the Lok Sabha general elections in 1989. In the National Front, Telugu Desam represented Prime Minister V.P. Singh’s Cabin-et for the first time. NTR was the chairman of the National Front and V.P. Singh was the convenor.
In the VP Singh government, P. Upendra was made the Cabinet minister. Even though, the National Front with seven political parties did not have a majority in the House, with outside support from the BJP, the V.P. Singh government was formed. But in 1991, the BJP withdrew its support and V.P. Singh resigned. Due to this, Upendra lost his Cabinet post also. Upen-dra was in the office for around a year.
Later, in 1996, the United Front was formed under the leadership of N. Chand-rababu Naidu.
In the United Front government, H.D. Deve Gowda was made the Prime Mini-ster. In this Cabinet, from Telugu Desam, K. Yerrann-aidu, Ummareddy Venkate-swarlu, Bolla Buliramaiah and S. Venugopalachary were made ministers. Yerr-annaidu was the Cabinet minister, Ummareddy was the state minister with ind-ependent charge and others were also state ministers.
In the United Front government, after Deve Gow-da’s resignation, I.K. Gujral was made the Prime Mini-ster. In the Gujral Cabinet, all TD ministers continued and in addition to them, Renuka Chowdary was also inducted into the Cabinet.
With outside support from the Congress, United Front government was formed. But in 1998, the Congress withdrew its support and the United Front government lost the power. In United Front government, TD ministers were in the office for around two years.
After BJP came to power in 2014, in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet, P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Y.S. Chowdary represented the TD. Ashok Gajapathi Raju was the Cabinet Minister and Y.S. Chowdary was the Minister of State.
In the latest political developments, in protest against the Central Government for not granting Special Status to AP, on the directions of party leadership, both Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Y.S. Chowdary resigned on March 8, 2018. Both were in the office for three years and ten months. This is the longest period represented by TD Ministers in the Union Cabinet.
