Revanth Hosts Dinner Ahead of Cabinet Reshuffle

Hyderabad: With the Congress high command being firm on a Cabinet reshuffle, preferably in the first week of June, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Sunday launched efforts to bring consensus on the new entrants.

He hosted an impromptu dinner at his residence to all his cabinet colleagues, most of whom had to rush back to capital from their respective districts late in the evening. The ministers left for native places in the morning to begin week-long outreach with people to popularise effective implementation of various schemes and administrative initiatives. Party in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan also joined the dinner.

Party sources told Deccan Chronicle that the high command made its mind clear on reshuffle, which the Chief Minister had earlier put on hold to avoid internal disturbances. The high command also conveyed its decision to revamp the Pradesh Congress Committee.

Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal recently elicited views from the Chief Minister, deputy chief minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and irrigation minister M. Uttam Kumar Reddy among others on the reshuffle in the last few days.

Interestingly, senior leaders were unanimous in opposing the inclusion of film actress and recently-elected MLC Vijayashanti under the BC quota, though they couldn’t arrive at consensus on other probables. Sources also said there was near unanimity on Vakiti Srihari, Makthal’s MLA hailing from the Mudiraj community.

The names of P, Sudarshan Reddy, K. Rajagopal Reddy, K. Prem Sagar Rao, G. Vivek Shabbir Ali, Amer Ali Khan and Fayeem Qureshi came up for consideration.

Three MLAs from the Madiga community have been seeking a berth for any of the three. Jatoth Ramchander Naik, Nenavath Balu Naik will be considered from the Scheduled Tribe communities.

While majority leaders favoured the inclusion of veteran Sudarshan Reddy to avoid criticism of elevating more than one family member, the high command is said to have referred to its earlier promise to accommodate Rajagopal Reddy and Vivek. There was ambiguity over Vivek’s candidacy also on the same grounds, sources said.

“Amer Ali Khan’s inclusion is ruled out because of his bitter rivalry with All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), leaving ground to veteran Shabbir and the Chief Minister’s close confidant Fayeem,” sources pointed out.