The political turmoil in Andhra Pradesh, with agitations and resignations of politicians on the contentious issue of bifurcation, may work against Andhra Pradesh when it comes to politicians from the state being included in the Union Cabinet when the impending reshuffle happens.
Sources said it is most unlikely that anyone from the state will make it to the Union Cabinet. There have been no new inclusions to the Central Cabinet from the state since May 2009. There has been a demand to include at least one more politician from the Seemandhra region in the Cabinet and three or four in the council of ministers.
Presently, Mr S. Jaipal Reddy is the lone Cabinet minister from the state. there are four ministers of state from the Seemandhra region and Mr Jairam Ramesh, who is minister of state with independent charge, but who is not a local politician.
State leaders boast that they are the largest contingent in the Lok Sabha (32), and Rajya Sabha (13), but this is not reflected in the Union council of ministers. Apart from the present ministers of state expecting to be elevated to either Independent or Cabinet status, there are several MPs who believe they are eligible for Cabinet postings and have been ignored in the past. They are Mr Kishore Chandra Deo, Mr Kavuri Sambasiva Rao, Mr Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, Mr V. Hanumanth Rao, Mr Kotla Jaya Surya Prakash Reddy, Mr Sarve Satyanarayana and Mr Anjan Kumar Yadav.
The outer limit of the Union council of ministers has been fixed as per statute at 81 (15 per cent of the total members in the Lower House) from all the three categories.
The present strength of the Cabinet is 76. That does not really leave room for many new inductions and the claims of a state which is giving the Central leadership some very tense moments cannot be rated very high.