Telangana: 10 ministers inducted in KCR's cabinet

Hyderabad, Feb 19: Ten TRS leaders were sworn-in as the Cabinet Ministers in the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao-led government in Telangana on Tuesday. Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan administered the oath of office to the ministers at Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad.

The ministers are yet to be allotted their portfolios. Some notable omissions were KT Rama Rao, KCR's son, and T Harish Rao, KCR's nephew, who were both ministers in Chandrashekar Rao's previous cabinet.

The TRS leaders who took oath as cabinet ministers today are A. Indrakaran Reddy, Eatala Rajender, Koppula Eshwar, T. Srinivas Yadav, V. Prashanth Reddy, S. Niranjan Reddy, V. Srinivas Goud, E. Dayakar Rao, Malla Reddy and G. Jagadishwar Reddy.

KCR has expanded his cabinet 68 days after the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) won the assembly elections, held on December 7, 2018, and stormed to power for the second consecutive time by winning 88 of the 119 seats in the Telangana assembly.

Of those sworn-in today, Etela Rajender, T Srinivasa Yadav, G Jagadish Reddy and A Indrakaran Reddy were ministers in KCR's first term also.

S Niranjan Reddy, Koppula Eashwar, Errabelli Dayakar Rao, V Srinivas Goud, Vemula Prashanth Reddy and Ch Malla Reddy were inducted into the cabinet for the for the first time.

KCR was sworn-in as the Chief Minister on December 13 at Raj Bhavan along with Mohammad Mahmood Ali as his Home minister.

KCR had drawn flak over failing to induct a woman into the cabinet in its previous term, and even this time around there were no woman ministers sworn-in as of now.

Earlier, the TRS government came under attack from the opposition parties on Monday over "delay" in formation of a full-fledged cabinet, with the Congress and the BJP alleging violation of constitutional norms. The Congress and the BJP had alleged that even after more than seven weeks of the government taking charge, the absence of a full-fledged cabinet is a violation of Articles 163 and 164 of the Constitution, which deal with the council of ministers in states.