Cabinet Rank For Vasireddy Padma

In a significant development, the YSRCP government of Andhra Pradesh today offered Cabinet rank to Vasireddy Padma who was recently made Chairperson of the Andhra Pradesh State Women's Commission.

For those who came in late, AP Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy had on August 8 made Padma the Chairperson of the Commission.

Padma hails from Krishna district. She had joined the YSRCP in 2011 along with her husband Kanikarla Wesley, and has been an active spokesperson of the party ever since, serving as one of the important voices of the party that took on the might of the Chandrababu Naidu government.

Since there is a restriction on how many MLAs can be made cabinet ministers (15% of the Assembly strength, which in this case is 26 since the AP Assembly strength is 175), it is a common practice for political parties who have won the elections to give cabinet rank to some senior leaders who cannot be accommodated in the cabinet, by appointing them to some nominated positions and then extending cabinet rank to that position.

KCR has routinely done the same in Telangana, most recently with B Vinod Kumar, who was appointed VC of the Telangana State Planning Commission and given ex officio cabinet rank.