Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s new cabinet looks like a target against the TDP. The cabinet composition is to erase the BC tag of the TDP in the 2024 elections.
The TDP, right from the beginning has been branded as the BC party in the state. Though Kammas play dominant role in the party affairs or decision-making, the BCs have been the backbone of the party.
The TDP had been winning mostly because of the BC votes since its inception. The TDP’s survival even now is because of the BC vote back that it has.
Jagan Mohan Reddy seems to be hitting at this base and take the BCs with him in the 2024 crucial election.
The YSR Congress already has the strong vote base from the SCs and the new cabinet reflects the new strategy of the party chief to project the party as the BC party.
Out of the total 25 ministers in the cabinet, 7 are from the BCs, which is 28 per cent representation. Even the TDP had never given this much representation to the BCs in its 40 years of existence.
Jagan Mohan Reddy, who started with the SC votes as his base is aiming to conquer the BCs and take them away from the TDP.
This would mean that the TDP would have to struggle hard for its survival after the 2024 general elections.
Even among the 11 ministers retained in the new cabinet, five are from the BCs, while three are from the SC list and two from the OC list.
In other words, Jagan Mohan Reddy had retained 45.5 per cent of the BC ministers from his first cabinet, which is highest ever in the history of undivided Andhra Pradesh.
Though the top three castes of Kamma, Vysya, Kshatriya and Brahmin have been kept outside the cabinet, which itself is a daring decision.
However, he is planning to accommodate these castes by giving them cabinet rank posts both in the Assembly as chief whip and deputy speaker posts and as chairpersons of planning board and development council outside the Assembly.
However, Jagan’s victory depends on how best he would be able to establish the fact of giving lions share in the cabinet to the BCs. He needs to take the message to the people and the success depends on this action plan.