PRP MLAs Added, Shankar Rao Sacked

The merger of the Praja Rajyam Party with the ruling Congress was formalized, on Thursday, with the induction of 2 PRP legislators into the N Kiran Kumar Reddy Cabinet.

Governor E S L Narasimhan administered the oath of office to MLC C Ramchandraiah and MLA Ganta Srinivas at the Raj Bhavan.

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimhan, MLA K Chiranjeevi, PCC President Botsa Satyanarayana and other leaders attended the swearing-in-ceremony held at 11.45am.

Ganta had earlier represented TDP in the Rajya Sabha, and was elected from the Chodavaram constituency in Visakhapatnam in the 2009 elections, on the PRP ticket.

Ramchandraiah served as a minister in NTR's Cabinet, and was also elected as a member of the Lok Sabha.

He was among the founding members of the Praja Rajyam Party, and was elected to the Legislative Council in March of last year.

Inclusive of the CM, the present state Cabinet has 39 members.

Following the induction ceremony, Kiran Kumar Reddy sent a letter to the Governor, requesting him that Handlooms & Textiles Minister Dr. P Shankar Rao be discharged from the Cabinet.

Shankar Rao was originally asked to submit his resignation, on Wednesday, but the minister refused to oblige, saying that he would submit his resignation directly to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

In light of this, the Chief Minister requested that Shankar Rao be discharged.

The AICC Secretary K E Krishna Murthy later told reporters at the Gandhi Bhavan that a full-fledged Cabinet expansion will be taken up soon to fill 5 vacant slots.

He said that more MLAs from the Telangana region will be inducted into the Cabinet. (INN)