Jagan Reddy to induct 14 new faces in revamped Cabinet

All 24 ministers had submitted their resignations to the chief minister on April 7 to enable him to reconstitute the Cabinet. There was one vacancy due to the death of Mekapati Goutham Reddy in February.

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy's revamped Cabinet will have 14 new faces while he has decided to retain 11 ministers who were part of the previous Cabinet. The new Cabinet, which will be sworn in by Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan on Monday, will be a mix of experienced and fresh faces. All 24 ministers had submitted their resignations to the chief minister on April 7 to enable him to reconstitute the Cabinet. There was one vacancy due to the death of Mekapati Goutham Reddy in February.

The 11 ministers who will continue in the new Cabinet are Botsa Satyanarayana, Peddireddy Ramachandrareddy, Narayanaswamy, Buggana Rajendranath, Gummanooru Jayaram, Sidiri Appalaraju, Pinipe Vishwaroopam, Cheluboina Venugopalakrishna, Taneti Vanitha, Amjad Basha and Adimalupu Suresh. The new ministers will be Dharmana Prasada Rao, P. Rajanna Dora, Gudivada Amarnath, Buddi Muthyala Naidu, Dadishetti Raja, Karumuri Nageswararao, Kittu Satyanarayana, Jogi Ramesh, Ambati Rambabu, Meraga Nagarjuna, Vidadala Rajini, Kakani Govardhanreddy, Roja K. Selvamani and Usha Sricharan.

In the revamped cabinet, Jagan Mohan Reddy has given 68 per cent representation to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes and minorities. Out of 25, a total of 17 ministers are from SCs, STs, BCs and minority communities. In the previous Cabinet, these sections had 56 per cent representation. In the previous cabinet, there were 5 SCs, 1 ST, 7 OBCs, 1 minority, and 11 Other Castes (OCs) MLAs as ministers. This time, the representation has been increased by 17 - 11 BCs, 5 SCs, 1 ST and 8 OCs. Out of the 10 ministers retained from the previous cabinet, 3 are from SC, 5 from BCs and 2 from OCs. The number of women ministers has also gone up to four from three in the previous Cabinet.

While constituting his first Cabinet in June 2019, Jagan Reddy had promised to revamp it halfway through his tenure. YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) said the ministers who were dropped will be given responsibilities in the party so that they can make use of their experience to ensure the party's victory in the 2024 elections.