25 members of Jagan Reddy's revamped Cabinet take oath
Amaravati, April 11: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has reconstituted his Cabinet with all 25 ministers taking oath on Monday. Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan administered the oath of office and secrecy to members of the revamped Cabinet at a ceremony held near the State Secretariat and attended by leaders and workers of YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and senior officials.
Eleven of those who took oath have been part of the earlier Cabinet since June 2019, while the remaining are new faces. Ambati Rambabu was the first to take oath. Adimalupu Suresh, Usha Sricharanan and Peddireddy Ramachandrareddy took oath in English while all others completed the formalities in Telugu.
Fourteen new ministers are Dharmana Prasada Rao, P. Rajanna Dora, Gudivada Amarnath, Buddi Muthyala Naidu, Dadishetti Raja, Karumuri Nageswararao, Kittu Satyanarayana, Jogi Ramesh, Ambati Rambabu, Meraga Nagarjuna, Vidadala Rajini, Kakani Govardhanreddy, Roja K. Selvamani and Usha Sricharan.
Botsa Satyanarayana, Peddireddy Ramachandrareddy, Narayanaswamy, Buggana Rajendranath, Gummanooru Jayaram, Sidiri Appalaraju, Pinipe Vishwaroopam, Cheluboina Venugopalakrishna, Taneti Vanitha, Amjad Basha and Adimalupu Suresh had served as ministers in previous Cabinet.
After taking oath, Gudivada Amarnath and Jogi Ramesh knelt down before Jagan Reddy to thank him.
Actor politician R.K. Roja and other first-time women ministers V. Rajini and Usha Sricharan touched the Chief Minister's feet while the latter blessed them.
There were loud cheers by supporters of the ministers when their names were announced for swearing-in. While constituting his first Cabinet in June 2019, Jagan Reddy had promised to revamp it halfway through his tenure.
All 24 ministers had submitted their resignations to the chief minister on April 7 to enable him to reconstitute the Cabinet. There was one vacancy due to the demise of Mekapati Goutham Reddy in February. The Chief Minister had told the Cabinet meeting that the dropped ministers will be given responsibilities in the party so that their experience can be used to ensure the party's victory in the 2024 elections.
A lion's share in the revamped cabinet has gone to the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Backward Classes (BCs). Out of 25, a total of 16 ministers are from SCs (5), STs (1) and BCs (11). In the previous cabinet, these sections had 13 members (5 SCs, 1 ST, 7 BCs).
Amjad Basha remained the sole representative from minorities. The representation of Other Castes (OCs) has come down to 8 from 11 earlier. The number of women ministers has also gone up to four from three in the previous Cabinet. YSRCP stormed to power in 2019, bagging 151 seats in the 175-member Assembly.
Jagan Reddy had formed the Cabinet with 25 ministers. In 2020, two of them Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose and R Mopidevi Venkataramana resigned after they were elected to Rajya Sabha. They were replaced by Venugopalakrishna and Appalaraju. Including the Chief Minister, the strength of the state cabinet stayed at 26, which is the maximum strength the council of ministers can maintain.