Suspense Continues Over Portfolios For New Ministers

The long-awaited Cabinet expansion in Telangana has come, with three more ministers joining Chief Minister Revanth Reddy's team. However, the current focus of discussion revolves around the distribution of portfolios for these new ministers.

There is speculation over whether the new ministers will be assigned only those portfolios currently held by the Chief Minister (at present Revanth Reddy holds multiple key departments, including General Administration, Home, Education, Municipal Administration, SC/ST and Minority Welfare, Labour, Animal Husbandry, and Mining among others, and reports suggest he is considering assigning some of these portfolios to his Cabinet colleagues), or if a complete overhaul of the existing portfolio structure is on the cards, potentially affecting the roles of sitting ministers as well (several current ministers are managing two or three portfolios each).

In this regard, the Chief Minister travelled to New Delhi on Monday morning. Reports indicate that he plans to consult with the Congress leadership regarding possible changes to ministerial portfolios. Sources suggest that the CM has taken to Delhi a detailed performance review of his ministers - highlighting both effective and underperforming ones - sparking speculation of an imminent reshuffle.

It is believed that Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka may take over the Home Ministry, especially as sensitive issues such as the phone-tapping case reach a crucial phase. Since the three new ministers sworn in on Sunday are first-time MLAs, discussions are underway to assign the key Home Ministry to the more experienced Vikramarka.

There is considerable discussion within party circles about other possible allocations: the Finance Department to Sridhar Babu, the Municipal Administration Department to Nakeerthi Srihari, the SC Welfare Department to Adluri Laxman and the Education Department to Vivek Venkatswamy.

A formal announcement regarding the allocation of ministerial portfolios is expected by Tuesday, as the Chief Minister continues consultations in Delhi.