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Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s first move in choosing his new Cabinet colleagues while taking the aspirations of the Alliance partners and caste equations gave a smooth take-off to the new NDA Government in Andhra Pradesh.
Naidu was sworn in on Wednesday with 24 ministers including Jana Sena Chief K Pawan Kalyan and his son and TDP’s General Secretary Nara Lokesh after the names of the cabinet ministers were released around 1 am on Wednesday ahead of the swearing-in ceremony scheduled at 11.27 am today. Even though the portfolios are yet to be announced by Naidu, Pawan Kalyan is almost likely to be named as Deputy Chief Minister along with a key portfolio.
Seniority coupled with loyalty, a perfect caste balance, the need to encourage new faces and ensure representation of women while keeping the allies in good humour appeared to be the guiding principles for Naidu in the induction of the ministers. Out of 24 ministers, 17 were first-timers and almost more than half of them were in the age group of 40-50.
Also read: Festivities, emotions galore at Naidu’s swearing-in ceremony
The senior most minister in terms of age is Md Farooq (74), Naidu (74) and Anam Rama Narayana Reddy (72). The youngest minister is V Anitha (40) who served as the head of TDP’s Women’s Wing.
Jana Sena, which won all 21 seats contested, has been given three berths (Pawan Kalyan, Nadendla Manohar, K Durgesh) while BJP which has 8 seats in the Assembly bagged one ministerial post for its MLA Satya Kurma Yadav. Rest of the Ministers were from TDP including three women.
Other popular ministers in the cabinet include K Acham Naidu, P Narayana, A Rama Narayana Reddy, A. Satya Prasad, K. Parthasarathy, D Bala Veeranjaneya Swamy, G Ravi Kumar, G Sandhya Rani, BC Janardhan Reddy, TG Bharath, S. Savitha, V Subhash, K. Srinivas and M Ramprasad Reddy, among others.
Naidu had a meeting with the new ministers before leaving for Tirupati this evening, will assume charge in Secretariat on Thursday evening and is expected to sign on the files for DSC notification for teacher recruitment, annulment of the Land Titling Act increasing pesnon for the elderly from ₹3,000 to ₹4,000 per month as promised in the manifesto.
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