2 months after re-election, KCR yet to finalise Telangana cabinet

It has been 64 days since Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao began his second innings as the chief minister of the country’s youngest state. Since then, he has been running a one-man show without a full-fledged cabinet after he returned to power with a landslide victory in the state election in December last year.

Official sources cite the strong belief of KCR, as he is popularly known, in astrology and his inclination to wait for an auspicious date as the reason for the delay in cabinet expansion. However, insiders within the TRS said the chief minister is trying to buy time to sort out issues with T Harish Rao, his nephew, so as to make way for his son KT Rama Rao to take up the mantle in a hassle-free manner.

Rama Rao was recently anointed as the working president of the TRS a day after KCR assumed charge as Telangana chief minister, casting a shadow over the political future of Harish Rao, who held the irrigation portfolio during the party’s first term.

Harish Rao won the Siddhipet assembly segment third time in succession with a record margin which was higher than that of KCR and his son. After failing to secure a berth in the cabinet formation, Harish Rao vacated his bungalow and even resigned as the honorary president of Telangana Road State Transport employees’ union.

Only Mohammod Mahammood Ali who took oath as the state home minister a few days after KCR was sworn in as the chief minister has been assisting him in running the state administration.

A senior TRS leader and Telangana member of the legislative council told the Hindustan Times on the condition of anonymity that KCR is planning to send all the seniors to Parliament to make the process of power transition hassle-free in favour of his son. Harish Rao is one among those who will move to the national capital in the coming general elections, he said.

“If a full-fledged cabinet is in place in the first spell itself with hardly three months away for the Parliament elections by accommodating seniors, sending them to the Lok Sabha might not be smooth, hence the delay,” said the TRS MLC cited above.

KCR may ask Harish Rao to contest either from Siddhipet or Medak, the source said.

According to the rules that determine the size of the state cabinet with 15% of representation from the assembly, KCR can have 18 ministers, including himself.

The Telangana Congress Committee led a delegation to Governor ESL Narasimhan recently seeking him to direct the chief minister to ensure a full-fledged cabinet in place. It’s quite undemocratic to run the government only with chief minister and home minister in spite of a thumping majority that the people of Telangana gave the TRS, said Sravan Dasoju, national spokesperson of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

TRS spokesperson Prof K Srinivasulu Reddy, however, asserted KCR will “do the right thing at the right time”.

“Whatever he does he will do it with a sense and valid reason and there is no basis in the opposition’s criticism on delay in cabinet expansion,” TRS spokesperson Prof K Srinivasulu Reddy asserted.

Political analyst Vikram Poola said the administration is obviously in shambles for want of a full-fledged cabinet and pendency of files keeping moving.