In a sensational decision, which is perhaps for of its kind in any state in the entire country, YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday announced induction of five deputy chief ministers in his cabinet.
He sprang a surprise on his party MLAs and MLCs, when he addressed the legislature party meeting at his party office at Tadepalli in Amarvati in the morning.
He said the entire country is looking at Andhra Pradesh which would extend a clean and efficient administration to the people.
He announced that he would form a full-fledged cabinet with 25 ministers on Saturday and five of them would be deputy chief ministers, as the MLAs and MLCs listened to him with a shock.
“The five Deputy CMs would be from: SC, ST, BC, minorities and Kapu communities so as to give a balance to all groups and do social justice,” he said.
The names that are being indicated for the Deputy CM posts are; Ummareddy Venkateshwarlu or Alla Nani (Kapu), Rajanna Dora (ST). K Parthasarathy (Yadava, BC), M Sucharita (SC) and Amzad Basha (Minority).
It is a big development in the state politics as never in the past did any chief minister make such an experiment.
Hitherto, we have seen the CMs appointing two Deputy chief ministers.
Between 2014 and 2019, former chief minister and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu appointed two Deputy chief ministers—Nimmakayala Chinna Rajappa and K E Krishna Murthy.
In Telangana, too, there were two deputy chief ministers in the previous term – Mohammad Mahmood Ali and Kadiyam Srihari in K Chandrasekhar Rao cabinet. However, this time, KCR did not appoint any deputy CMs.
If Jagan gives them full powers, it will be more commendable; otherwise, if they are just ornamental posts as was the case with two deputy CMs in Telangana and AP in the previous terms.
