It was a smooth sailing into the 25-crew Cabinet, picked by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and sworn in on Monday, for the three Ministers and three new faces from the Godavari region.
Former Social Welfare Minister Pinipe Viswaroop, former Backward Classes Welfare Minister Ch. Venu Gopala Krishna, and former Women and Child Welfare Minister Taneti Vanita have been rewarded with another two-and-a-half year term in the State Cabinet. New faces Dadisetti Raja (Tuni), K. Nageswara Rao (Tanuku) and K. Satyanarayana (Tadepalligudem) were given an opportunity to prove their mettle in the run-up to the next Assembly elections.
Erstwhile East and West Godavari districts each got three Ministerial berths in the new Cabinet. Unlike other districts where protests are being witnessed after the local MLAs were stripped of their Cabinet posts, the six MLAs enjoyed a rousing reception after their elevation and have received unanimous support from their party colleagues in the Godavari region.
However, the newly formed districts of Kakinada and Alluri Sitarama Raju did not get their due share in the Cabinet even as former Agriculture Minister Kurasala Kannababu was dropped from the Cabinet.
The newly-formed Konaseema district has been given two Ministerial berths - with Mr. Viswaroop and Mr. Venu Gopala Krishna being retained. The duo’s second stint is expected to be more challenging than their first, given the elections that will come up in two years’ time.
Mr. Venu Gopala Krishna is one of the first-time MLAs who got the opportunity of being a full-time Minister in Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s Cabinet.
The two Cabinet Ministers from Konaseema district would likely witness a strong fight from the Jana Sena Party (JSP) in the next Assembly elections. The JSP has gained strength in the Konaseema region, where it secured a good number of seats in the recent local body elections.
