It was a big disappointment for Visakhapatnam Bharatiya Janata Party MP Kambhampati Haribabu for missing the bus in the Union cabinet expansion.
On Saturday evening, he got a call from the Prime Minister’s Office and he left for New Delhi along with his family members.
Though there was no official call from BJP President Amit Shah, Haribabu thought since he was asked to come, his berth in the Union cabinet is confirmed. But, much to his shock, he could not find his name in the final list.
Not only that, even his mentor, Vice President M Venkaiaih Naidu was dejected for the denial of ministry to Haribabu.
So, what went wrong at the eleventh hour? According to sources in the party circles in New Delhi, it was Amit Shah who stalled the entry of Haribabu in the cabinet for the simple reason that he was closer to Venkaiah Naidu.
Right from the beginning, Shah was somehow not tolerating Venkaiah and his team. Since he is closer to Modi, he could not do anything and finally, he managed to get rid of Venkaiah by offering him the Vice President post.
But what about representation to Andhra Pradesh? Shah reportedly preferred to retain Nirmala Sitaraman, who was also one of the Central ministers supposed to be dropped and offered a party post.
Nirmala, who represents Andhra Pradesh in Rajya Sabha, has now been elevated to the Cabinet rank and that is more than enough for Andhra Pradesh. And there is already Ashok Gajapathi Raju enjoying the cabinet post.
For Telangana, however, great injustice was done as Bandaru Dattatreya lost his post. And no replacement was done for him.
