After facing a humiliating defeat in the recent assembly elections in Telangana, the Congress party seems to be running out of issues to attack the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Having no other issue to raise, the Congress party has sought to question KCR for delaying the cabinet expansion.
All India Congress Committee spokesperson Dr Sravan Dasoju on Tuesday criticized KCR for not appointing minimum number of ministers in his cabinet and described it as a violation of Constitution of India.
Sravan wrote a letter to Governor E S L Narasimhan seeking his immediate intervention in the delay in forming a full-fledge cabinet even after five weeks of formation of new government.
"The Article 164 (1A) says that the total number of ministers, including the chief minister, in the council of ministers in a state shall not exceed fifteen per cent of the total number of members of the Legislative Assembly of that State, provided that the number of ministers, including the chief minister in a state shall not be less than 12. However, violating the constitutional mandate, the present government as of now consists of only the chief minister and home minister," he said.
In the absence of a full-fledged council of ministers, even the role of Governor has become deceased and defunct in Telangana, as there is none to aid and advice the Governor.
Sravan said except for four portfolios of Home, Stamps and Registrations, Relief and Rehabilitation, Urban Land Ceiling, all other portfolios are kept with a single person, i.e., the Chief Minister.
He wondered whether Mahmood Ali enjoys the authority to take independent decision on portfolios being held by him.
"There are 33 departments and 289 organizations in the government of Telangana and it is humanely to impossible for one person to make decisions and monitor their execution. Without minimum number of ministers, we are not only curtailing the functioning of the government, but also doing disservice to the people who participated in democratic elections and voted,” he argued.