Telangana Rashtra Samithi MP A P Jitender Reddy might have ruled out joining the NDA government at the Centre and Bharatiya Janata Party Telangana unit president Dr K Laxman might have made it clear that there is no question of taking the TRS into the Central cabinet, but the speculations about TRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao still lobbying for a central cabinet berth continue to do rounds in the media circles.
According to these speculations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not accommodated anybody from Telangana in the Sunday’s cabinet expansion only because the talks with the TRS leadership remained inconclusive.
Till Saturday evening, the names of BJP leaders P Muralidhar Rao, Vedire Sriram and G Kishan Reddy did rounds in BJP circles as to who would get the ministerial post vacated by Dattatreya.
Sources said Modi had deputed finance minister Arun Jaitely to negotiate with the TRS for joining in the NDA without any conditions, but KCR wanted at least two berths in the Central cabinet – for his daughter Kalwakuntla Kavitha and Rajya Sabha member K Kesava Rao. Modi has conveyed that he could accommodate one MP at the most.
After KCR and Jaitley’s meeting, the BJP state leadership received a message from their Delhi bosses that for now, Telangana will not get any ministerial post, since the talks remained inconclusive.