Diwali bonanza for AP

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Andhra Pradesh is set to be the biggest beneficiary in the Union Cabinet reshuffle on Sunday, with five more state MPs being listed to join the Manmohan Singh ministry. In addition to this, ministers of state Daggubati Purandeswari and M.M. Pallam Raju are being elevated as MoS with independent charge.

Purandeswari is likely to get charge of the plum commerce portfolio.

Chiranjeevi (member Rajya Sabha), Kotla Jaya Surya Prakash Reddy (Kurnool), P. Balaram Naik (Mahbubabad), Mr Sarve S a t y a n a r a y a n a (Malkajgiri) and Ms Killi Kruparani (Srikakulam) will be inducted in Sunday’s reshuffle of the Union Council of ministers.

While Chiranjeevi will be made MoS with independent charge, the other four MPs will be made ministers of state.

Sources said that the Prime Minister invited all the five MPs over phone on Saturday morning to join his Cabinet. The MPs, too, confirmed the same to the media. The PM also called Purandeswari and Pallam Raju and informed them about their elevation.

Purandeswari went on record at Visakhapatnam on Saturday that the Prime Minister had offered her the commerce and industrial promotion portfolio.

With the induction of five AP MPs into the Union Cabinet, the representation from the state will go up to 11 from the present six.

While finalising the names of AP leaders for Sunday’s Cabinet reshuffle, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stayed clear of MPs who have championed the cause of a separate Telangana or a united Andhra Pradesh.

Leaders who courted controversy in the past have been put in their place.

Sources said Gandhi had warned these MPs in the past not to embarrass the party by creating scenes. This was evident in Kavuri Sambasiva Rao, a five-term MP and the convenor of party leaders demanding continuation of a united AP, Similarly, Backward Classes MPs from Telangana - Madhu Yashki Goud and Ponnam Prabhakar - were also omitted.

For the first time in the UPA, an MP from the Backward Classes from the state is being accommodated in the Council of Ministers in the form of Srikakulam MP Killi Kruparani.

Though Kruparani had sailed with Kadapa MP Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy for a while and had even participated in the Odarpu yatra in her district, she quickly fell in line after Gandhi gave her a dressing down in Parliament Central Hall.

As the Kalinga community is confined only to Srikakulam, choosing either V. Hanumantha Rao (Munnuru Kapu, BC) or Anjan Kumar Yadav (Yadav, BC) would have given better representation to the community, but the Congress president decided to go for Kruparani to give more representation to women and also due to the fact that North Andhra is dominated by BCs.

With this reshuffle, all regions and unrepresented castes will now be included, giving the state Congress a chance to face the challenges from the TD and the YSR Congress.

Apart from Jaipal Reddy (from Telangana), two more MPs are being inducted from the region — Sarve

Satyanarayana, (Madiga, Scheduled Caste) and Panabaka Laxmi (Banjara, Scheduled Tribe.
This will nullify the TD challenge demanding SC categorisation.

With the induction of three-term MP from Kurnool Kotla Jaya Surya Prakash Reddy, the Rayalaseema quota has not only got filled, but it has fulfilled the “Reddy” factor.

Since first-time MP Chiranjeevi was offered MoS with independent charge, it was decided to also elevate MoS Daggubati Purandeswari and M.M. Pallam Raju.

In fact, Raju and Purandareswari have been serving as MoS in defence and HRD for the last seven years and more.

Both Chiranjeevi and Raju belong to the powerful Kapu community from West and East Godavari districts, and the leadership thought it would be prudent to retain the representation of the community keeping in view the recent victory of the Congress in the Kapudominated Narsapuram and Ramachandrapuram segments in the bypolls and the 2014 elections.