N Chandrababu Naidu, 25 ministers to be sworn in today; JPS gets 3, BJP 1 berth
Governor S Abdul Nazeer will administer the oath of office and secrecy at a ceremony in Vijayawada at 11.27 am days after TDP swept back to power this month
N Chandrababu Naidu will be sworn in as the Andhra Pradesh chief minister for the fourth time on Wednesday along with 25 ministers including three from the Jana Sena Party (JSP) and one from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). JSP chief Pawan Kalyan will take oath as deputy chief minister and Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh will be part of the Cabinet.
Governor S Abdul Nazeer will administer them the oath of office and secrecy at a ceremony in Vijayawada at 11.27am days after TDP swept back to power this month, winning 135 of 175 seats. JSP bagged 21 and the BJP eight seats. YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), which secured 151 seats in the 2019 election, was reduced to just 11.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, chief ministers of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and celebrities such as Chiranjeevi, Ram Charan, and Rajinikanth will attend the ceremony.
The list of the council of ministers was finalised around 1.15 am on Wednesday after deliberations between Naidu, Kalyan, and top BJP national leaders Amit Shah and JP Nadda in Amaravati. They include JSP’s Nadendla Manohar and Kandula Durgesh and BJP’s Y Satya Kumar.
A leader of Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) said a berth has for now been kept vacant in the council of ministers, which can have a maximum strength of 26 including the chief minister. The TDP leader said Naidu has sought to maintain a balance between experienced leaders and newcomers (17) besides considering regional, caste, and gender equations.
The council of ministers will include three women, eight from backward classes, two from Scheduled Castes, a member of a Scheduled Tribe, and one Muslim. Four Kapus and Kammas each, three Reddys, and one Vysya will also be part of the Naidu’s council of ministers.
Anam Ramnarayana Reddy and Kolusu Parthasarathy, who defected from the YSRCP before the elections, will also be included in the Cabinet.
Senior leaders Kanna Lakshminarayana, Ganta Srinivas Rao, Gorantla Buchaiah Chowdary, Ch Ayyanna Patrudu, and Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy (TDP) and Konathala Ramakrishna (JSP) will not be part of the Cabinet.