13 hours ago
Balancing push of castes and pull of vote banks
Hyderabad: Sending across the message that the long-term need of keeping the vote bank intact prevails over the immediate need to accommodate the interests of various competing communities, the Congress high command, going by the composition of the expanded cabinet, has accorded priority to Mala, Madiga and Mudiraj, with MLAs from these three castes being inducted into the state cabinet as ministers.
The appointments, while reflecting the Congress government's declared focus on social justice, comes amidst determined push by influential communities, including Reddy, Velama, Kamma andKapu, as well as a few dominant communities among the Backward Classes. Party legislators belonging to these communities were simply ignored in the cabinet expansion, notwithstanding the potential for trouble from disgruntled elements. Overall, the expansion exercise balances the push of castes and the pull of vote banks.
Anticipating a revolt from certain leaders of these communities, the party leaders have already started holding out the olive branch to the miffed senior leaders who, after all, had been dreaming, day and night, of becoming ministers in the cabinet expansion.
Noticeably, most of the disappointed aspirants for cabinet berths are from dominant communities. They include senior leaders P Sudhrshan Reddy (Bodhan MLA), MalreddyRanga Reddy (Ibrahimpatnam) and Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy (Munugode), who had lobbied strongly with the party high command for a berth in the cabinet expansion. Senior leader from Velama community K Premsagar Rao (Mancherial), Ellareddy MLA Madanmohan from Kamma caste and D Nagendar from Kapu community too had brought a lot of pressure on party leaders for berths. Curiously, the Congress leadership turned a deaf ear to these leaders' loaded pleas at the eleventh hour, sending another message that the long-pending cabinet expansion cannot be put off indefinitely in view of inevitable power struggle among MLAs representing various communities.
Leaders told The Hans Indiathat state Congress in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan boldly took the responsibility of the composition of the state cabinet and cherry-picked the candidates without succumbing to pressure from anyone. The emerging role of Mala and Madiga leaders assumed significance in the light of the recent enactment of a law relating to sub-categorization of the SC communities. This explains why MLAs G Vivek (Mala) and A Laxman (Madiga) got the opportunity. Considering the big vote bank of the Mudirajcommunity in the state, Makthal MLA V Srihari has been inducted.
With the induction of three new ministers, the strength of the Telangana cabinet rises to 12, including the Chief Minister. Against the full sanctioned strength of 18, six positions remained vacant, leaving room for further expansion. Following Sunday's swearing-in, three cabinet berths will continue to remain unfilled. 'Another three berths are still vacant. These will be filled by inducting MLAs from other communities 'at an appropriate time', sources said. 'The party will definitely recognize the services of all senior leaders at the right time,' a senior leader said. He confirmed that Meenakshi Natarajan and TPCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud were reaching out to the sulking senior leaders and convincing them to wait for 'some more time'. Rangareddy had already threatened to quit the party if he was not included in the list of new cabinet ministers. Sensing immediate trouble, Meenakshi, in a fire-fighting mode, spoke to the Ibrahimpatnam MLA and assured him of justice.
