Entire Andhra cabinet quits ahead of revamp

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday dissolved his cabinet and is now expected to form an entirely new one with 90% fresh faces, party leaders said.

At the end of the three-hour-long cabinet meeting held at the state secretariat in Amaravati, the chief minister ,also the chief of the YSR Congress party, sought the resignations of all his cabinet colleagues, saying that he would utilise their expertise for the party in the run-up to 2024 assembly elections in the state.

Briefing reporters later, outgoing state minister for information and public relations Perni Venkatramaiah said all 24 ministers of the Jagan Mohan Reddy government resigned as per Reddy’s directions.

“This is in accordance with the chief minister’s wish to strengthen party machinery by assigning key responsibilities to the experienced party seniors to prepare the party for the 2024 elections. This decision of the chief minister was happily accepted and welcomed by the entire cabinet,” he added.

Later in the evening, the resignation letters were sent to Raj Bhavan through a special messenger for acceptance by Governor Biswabhushan Harichandan, a CMO spokesperson said.

According to the CMO official, the new cabinet will be sworn in at around 11.30 am on April 11, which happens to be an auspicious day, Chaitra Suddha Dasami.

The chief minister held a meeting with the Governor on Wednesday night and formally requested him to administer the oath of office to the new ministers.

At the time of the formation of the first cabinet on June 8, 2019 itself, Reddy declared that the term of the council of ministers would be only two and a half years and that he would revamp it completely with new faces in December 2021. However, the chief minister deferred his plans by four months.

Reddy is expected to induct new faces, barring four or five ministers of the dissolved cabinet, who might be retained. “The chief minister told us that he might retain four or five ministers while revamping the cabinet with fresh faces,” outgoing civil supplies minister Kodali Nani told reporters.

A senior YSRCP legislator said on condition of anonymity that Chelluboyina Srinivasa Venugopala Krishna, Seediri Appala Raju, Gummanuru Jayaram and Adimulapu Suresh, will likely be retained as ministers.

According to the YSRCP leader quoted above, Jagan is likely to continue the tradition of reserving 50% of the cabinet berths for SCs, STs, OBCs, minorities and women. “The chief minister will also continue with the practice of appointing five deputy chief ministers, representing weaker sections,” he said.