YSR’s brother among 39 Andhra ministers sworn in

HYDERABAD - The family of the late Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy stood vertically split Wednesday with his brother Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy joining the state cabinet, ignoring the appeals of his sister-in-law Vijayalaxmi and nephew Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy who resigned from the Congress this week.

Vivekananda, a member of legislative council, was among the 39 ministers inducted into the state cabinet Wednesday.

Chief Minister Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy dropped three loyalists of Jaganmohan Reddy, Rajasekhara Reddy’s rebel son popularly known as Jagan. He also inducted a few others who were openly demanding a probe into alleged corruption during Rajasekhara Reddy’s six-year rule.

Kiran has dropped five ministers who were members of the cabinets of Rajasekhara Reddy and Rosaiah, retained 28 ministers and brought 11 new faces. Seven of them, including Vivekananda Reddy, have become the ministers for the first time.

Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan administered the oath of office and secrecy to the ministers at a morning ceremony at Raj Bhavan.

Vivekananda is the only minister from the legislative council and his induction was clearly aimed at countering Jagan, who resigned from the Congress and parliament Monday, accusing the leadership of trying to divide the family by luring his uncle with a ministerial post.

Jagan and his mother Vijayalaxmi, who too quit the Congress and the state assembly, tried in vain to stop Vivekananda from joining the cabinet. There was a heated argument between Jagan and his uncle during their meeting Tuesday night at Kadapa.

Shankar Rao, son-in-law of senior Congress leader G. Venkatswamy and a legislator from Hyderabad, and D.L. Ravinder Reddy of Kadapa district are among the new faces in the new cabinet. The two are bitter critics of Jagan and had been demanding a probe into alleged corruption during Rajasekhara Reddy’s rule.

K. Jana Reddy, who was home minister in Rajasekhara Reddy’s earlier cabinet (2004-09), has returned to the cabinet. He was in the forefront of the movement for separate Telangana state.

T.G. Venkatesh, who is opposed to a separate Telangana state and is fighting for the rights of Rayalaseema region, has also made it to the cabinet.

With 16 ministers, Telangana has been given the largest representation in the cabinet, followed by coastal Andhra (15) and Rayalaseema (8).

Mohammed Ahmedullah remains the lone Muslim minister in the cabinet.

Of the state’s 23 districts, Adilabad is the only district with no representation in the cabinet.

The prominent ministers retained include Dharmana Prasad Rao, Botsa Satyanarayana, Raghuveera Reddy, P. Lakshma Reddy, G. Aruna Kumari, S. Vijayrama Raju and J. Geeta Reddy.

The Congress retained power in April 2009 elections by bagging 156 seats in the 294-member assembly.

Rajasekhara Reddy, who took oath as the chief minister for the second consecutive term May 20 last year, died in a helicopter crash on Sep 2 the same year.

Rosaiah, who was finance minister at the time, succeeded him as the chief minister but retained the same cabinet. He quit last week on health grounds.