In an unexpected development, the YSRCP leadership faced dissidence from the followers of those who missed the cabinet berths on Sunday.
Surprisingly, the party faced the first rebellion from within the family of the chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy as the former energy minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy expressed serious displeasure over the induction of Dr Adimulapu Suresh from Prakasam district.
Balineni, a close relative of the chief minister, had reportedly demanded the chief minister either to remove both or continue both from the district. State government advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy held discussions with Balineni in the morning and shared the views of the chief minister.
With Balineni unrelenting on the issue, chief minister initially decided to axe Dr Adimulapu Suresh along with Balineni. In fact, chief minister decided to take Thippeswamy from Ananthapuram district as replacement to Dr Suresh and the initial list was also released with the names. Within no time, Tippeswamy’s name was removed from the list and Suresh’s name was sent to Raj Bhavan. Stumped by the development, Balineni reported to have threatened to quit from the assembly. Soon after releasing the official list of the new cabinet, Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy had once again rushed to Balineni’s residence and held discussions to pacify him.
The followers of Chodavaram MLA Karanam Dharmasri staged a protest on the main road junction at Chodavaram and burnt automobile tyres to express their anger at their leader being denied a berth in the reorganised Cabinet. They raised slogans demanding that their leader be accommodated and denouncing the Chief Minister.
The followers of Macherla legislator Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy staged protests in the town by burning tyres and party flags. A woman activist made an attempt to jump into the fire in protest against not giving berth to Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy, a four-time legislator from Macharla. Pinnelli, government whip, switched off his mobile and went incommunicado soon after the announcement of the list.
In Guntur, the followers of the former Home Minister Mekathoti Sucharitha burned the tyres on the road at the Lodge Centre on Sunday protesting against her removal from the cabinet and not taking her again in the fresh cabinet. The police intervened and pacified the activists.
Followers of another senior legislator Samineni Udayabhanu of Krishna district have also staged similar protests in Jaggaiahpet. They burnt down the party flags for not inducing Udayabhanu into the cabinet. He was also serving as government whip with cabinet rank. Interestingly, Udayabhanu met Balineni Srinivasa Reddy in the afternoon and said that he was expecting a cabinet berth as he was senior most in the district.
However, Udayabhanu missed the chance when four Kapu leaders from Anakapalle, East Godavari, West Godavari and Guntur were accommodated.
Nellore rural legislator Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy broke down after seeing the cabinet list. He wept in the presence of the party workers for not considering him for the cabinet berth despite knocking each and every door of the party workers to strengthen the party.
Chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy directed the senior leaders to meet the dissident leaders and bring them to him. Regional coordinators of the party have been asked to cajole the leaders hurt with missing the berth in the cabinet.
