Ahead of the Assembly Monsoon Session to be held in September, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is likely to expand his Cabinet size by four.
The Chief Minister reportedly felt that the exclusion of some erstwhile powerful leaders in the cabinet proved costly for the party in the recent Lok Sabha elections. Also, having lost the Nizamabad and Karimnagar Lok Sabha seats that the party had in the previous Lok Sabha, the TRS chief reportedly plans to compensate those leaders so as to appease discontent.
It is also known that popular leaders in their own rights like Harish Rao need to be accommodated in the cabinet to appease their supporters. Plus, KCR's son and putative heir apparent K T Rama Rao needs to be added anyway.
The monsoon session will also present a full-fledged budget (the previous budget was a vote-on-account budget), and a cabinet expansion will most likely lead to a dedicated finance minister presenting the budget. KCR is likely to go in for a budget for only six months this time. The various departments have been asked to submit proposals for allocations.
filed in:T Harish Rao, Cabinet, Cabinet Reshuffle, KCR, K T Rama Rao