The sudden announcement of schedule for the MLC elections in the Telugu states by the Election Commission of India is expected to delay the plans of YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan
There were reports that Jagan might go in for complete overhaul of the state cabinet by replacing all the existing ministers with new faces in the month of November.
As part of his original plan, Jagan has to revamp the cabinet before November end, when he completes two and a half years.
However, with the EC announcing the schedule for the election of three MLCs under the MLAs’ quota in place of three members of the legislative council – D C Govind Reddy, Mohammad Ahmed Shariff and Somu Veerraju, the chief minister is learnt to have changed his mind.
The new MLCs would be elected by November 22, when the nominations and withdrawal process come to an end. Since the YSRC has full strength in the assembly, all the three MLCs will get elected unopposed.
It is learnt Jagan is now expected to take up the cabinet revamp only in the first week of December, as he is contemplating accommodating one or two MLCs also in the new cabinet.
It is learnt Jagan has assured Govind Reddy that he would be re-nominated to the legislative council under MLAs’ quota.
Of the remaining two seats, several names are doing rounds, including that of former MLC Ummareddy Venkateshwarlu, Marri Rajasekhar, Dutta Ramachandra Rao, Yarlagadda Venkat Rao, Thota Vani etc.
Since there are going to be MLC elections soon for 11 seats under the local bodies’ quota as well, Jagan has enough time to exercise for filling up these vacancies.
Of them, two MLC seats each are there in Krishna, Guntur and Visakhapatnam and one each in Chittoor, East Godavari, Vizianagaram, Anantapuram and Prakasam districts.
Several names are doing rounds in the party circles for these MLC posts from these districts. Once these names are finalised, Jagan will go in for the cabinet revamp so that eligible among the MLCs could also be accommodated, sources added.