Many senior Telugu Desam leaders are extremely happy over the defections of opposition MLAs to the party. They are going gaga not because their party and president Chandrababu Naidu’s hands are getting strengthened. They are joyous because these defections are providing the much needed opportunity for Naidu to reshuffle the cabinet.
Whether it is warranted or not all the senior leaders are issuing statements defending party president and chief minister Chandrababu Naidu for admitting the YSRC MLAs into the party and attacking Jagan as anti-progress politician. If one MLAs says Jagan would go to jail much before 2019 general elections, another says Jagan would never becomes chief minister. While one says YSRC MLAs are joining the party as they were convinced of chief minister Naidu’s plans of development, others say all opposition MLAs were harassed by their leader Jagan.
A sort of competition could be observed among a section of senior leaders in attracting the attention of Naidu. Suddenly all these MLAs have become hyper active in criticizing the opposition leader and praising Naidu. What is common among these legislators is that they are all aspirants of cabinet berth.
Normally, on their own they can’t demand the chief minister to take up cabinet expansion and appoint them as ministers. Now, due to the admission of some high profile MLAs such as Bhuma Nagaireddy and C Adinarayana Reddy, they think cabinet expansion is imminent. Another logic they put forth to justify their expectations of possible cabinet expansion is that the caste imbalance in the cabinet. They admit the influential Reddy community is under represented. Naidu may try to set it right by taking a couple of Reddys. Then, their logic goes, could Naidu afford to ignore one or two senior TDP MLAs from taking into cabinet? Their expectations are not ill-founded. Media reports that YSRCP strongmen like Bhuma Nagireddy and C Adinarayana Reddy are lured into the party with the promise of inducting them into cabinet.
The cabinet-berth aspirants in Telugu Desam are: Gorantal Butchaiah Chowdary, Payyavula Kesav, Gali Muddu Krishnama Naidu, Kaluva Srinivasulu, Kala Venkatarao, Dhulipala Narendra, Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy, Magunta Srinivalusu Reddy, Gouthu Sivaji, Chintamaneni Prabhakar, Yarapatineni Srinivasarao, Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy, Damacherla Janardhan…. the list goes on unending.
The TDP MLAs strongly believe that Naidu would expand the cabinet after the budget session. They hope that at least six to seven new faces would join the cabinet as Naidu wants to drop some ministers based on the performance assessment report prepared by party national general secretary Nara Lokesh.
