Telangana: KCR to expand Cabinet Feb 19, 3 days before Budget Session

Hyderabad, Feb 16: Buckling under pressure from opposition parties, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has decided to expand the state Cabinet on February 19.

According to reports, the Chief Minister met Governor ESL Narasimhan on Friday afternoon at Raj Bhavan and conveyed his decision to expand the Cabinet. Officials said that KCR chose the auspicious date of February 19 to expand the Cabinet and have the swearing-in ceremony at 11.30 am.

For nearly two months after getting a landslide victory in Assembly elections held in December, the state government was functioning with just the CM and Home Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali, 66, and a Member of the Legislative Council.

The Cabinet expansion is taking place threee days before the Budget session of Telangana Assembly.

"It''s a constitutional violation," Congress spokesperson Sravan Dasoju said on the "delay" in constituting a full-fledged Cabinet.

"There is zero governance, defunct bureaucracy and complete anarchy in the state. Thousands of files have piled up and the budget is yet to be presented," Dasoju told PTI.

CPI general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy said: "I am really surprised. Nobody is able to tell the reason. I think he (Rao) is in a fix on how to select the Cabinet colleagues; he is confused that there would be dissent from a large section of people (who miss out on Cabinet berths)."

(With PTI inputs)