After much dilly-dallying and indefinite postponement, Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has finally decided to expand his council of ministers.
According to the information from the chief minister’s office, Naidu would induct two ministers in the minor reshuffle at a simple function on Sunday.
In a way, he is going to fill two vacancies caused by the resignation of two BJP ministers in April this year, after the TDP broke away from the NDA.
It is learnt, Naidu has decided to induct Kidari Sravan Kumar, son of slain Araku MLA Kidari Sarveshwar Rao, into the state cabinet.
Apparently, Naidu saw a spark in Sravan, an engineering graduate from IIT and decided to groom him into a politician.
This would not only send positive signals among the tribals, who were agitated over the inaction of the police in providing security to the slain MLA, but also secure support from the youth.
Though Sravan is neither an MLA nor an MLC, he can continue as a minister for another six months.
In any case, there would be elections in the next six months and in the meantime, there would be MLC elections in February/March.
Sravan can be made an MLC or can be fielded directly as an MLA from Araku in place of his father.
Besides Sravan, Naidu might take a minority leader into the cabinet. The name of Mohammad Sharif, an MLC, is doing rounds in the TDP circles.