NEW DELHI, April 7: All the 24 ministers in the Andhra Pradesh cabinet submitted their resignations to the chief minister to enable him to reconstitute his cabinet halfway through the term scheduled to end in June, 2024.
All the ministers handed in their resignations after a cabinet meeting. The makeover was widely anticipated as Jagan Reddy had said he would go in for an entirely new team halfway through his term. The revamp was scheduled in December but had to be put off due to Covid. Reddy had called on Governor Biswabhusan Harichandran at the Raj Bhawan on Wednesday evening apparently to intimate him about his plans for organising a swearing-in for the new ministers. The new cabinet is expected to take oath on April 11.
Reddy had hinted way back in 2019 that he might reconstitute his cabinet mid-way. It was the same pattern followed in Gujarat where the entire cabinet including the chief minister was replaced at the behest of the prime minister Narendra Modi about a year before the general elections scheduled in December, this year. Reddy, however, may retain one or two ministers from the outgoing team as they are the only members belonging to politically vital communities that need to be represented, party sources said. The new cabinet is likely to have representation from each of the newly-formed 26 districts of the state. Caste, region, religion, and gender will be factored in, as in June 2019, when Jagan Reddy took over as Chief Minister.
Reddy had five Deputy Chief Ministers, one each from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes, Kapu caste and the Muslim minority community. There were three women in the cabinet. The Home Minister was M Sucharita, a woman from the Dalit community. This structure is likely to be repeated. The outgoing ministers are likely to be given party roles; sources say given their record as ministers and their rapport with the public, they would be useful for coordination.
In 2019 soon after his massive victory in the Andhra Pradesh election, Reddy had said he would pick a new team mid-term as part of his strategy for 2024. The idea was to give everyone a chance and also beat any anti-incumbency against any MLA who has served as minister. After carving out 13 new districts, the chief minister is now going for the Cabinet rejig.
(Manas Dasgupta)
