Who'll replace Kodali Nani under Kamma quota?

As YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has been doing a meticulous exercise on the revamp of his cabinet, speculations are going on in the media circles as to who would get the lucky chance in place of outgoing ministers.

There is no doubt that Jagan will take into consideration all caste equations before finalising his team of ministers. But it is a tough task for him, as there are too many contenders for the cabinet berths and the options are less.

So, he has to do a real balancing act to accommodate leaders from all castes representing all regions of the state. In any case, his word would be final and as is his wont, he won’t discuss with any other leader before selecting his team.

Against this backdrop, it would be interesting to see who will Jagan accommodate in the cabinet under Kamma community, which he treats with utmost contempt because of the obvious reasons.

At present, there is only one Kamma minister in the Jagan cabinet: he is Kodali Venkateshwara Rao alias Nani from Gudivada assembly constituency in Krishna district, holding the portfolio of civil supplies.

Kodali has been the most trusted lieutenant of Jagan right from the inception of the party and despite representing Kamma community, he has been the most venomous attacker on Telugu Desam Party and its president N Chandrababu Naidu.

Yet, there is no chance of Kodali getting a second chance in the cabinet, as Jagan has decided to drop all the existing ministers. So, there will be another Kamma replacing Kodali at any cost.

There are five other Kamma MLAs in the YSRC – Kothari Abbayya Chowdary from Denduluru, Vasantha Venkata Krishna Prasad from Mylavaram, Annabathuni Siva Kumar from Tenali, Bolla Brahma Naidu from Vinukonda, Namburu Sankara Rao from Pedakurapadu.

If Jagan wants to accommodate a Kamma in the cabinet, he has to pick up one of these five MLAs. There is a speculation that Vasantha Krishna Prasad, son of former minister Vasantha Nageshwar Rao, might get a chance because of his aggressive nature and also because he has defeated another powerful TDP leader Devineni Umamaheshwar Rao.

However, the most probable name that could fit into this Kamma category is two-time former MLA from Chilakaluripet Marri Rajasekhar, who has been a strong leader of the YSRC since 2011.

But Rajasekhar is neither an MLA nor an MLC now. In fact, he was a strong contender for YSRC ticket from Chilakaluripet in 2019, but was denied the same due to caste equations. Jagan gave the ticket to a BC woman leader Vidadala Rajani, a defector from TDP and she won the seat comfortably.

Though Jagan promised to nominate Rajasekhar to the state legislative council under the Governor’s quota, it has been pending for quite a long time and every time, the chance has gone to somebody else.

Now that there are going to be elections to as many as 14 vacancies for MLC seats in November, Rajasekhar is expected to get a chance to become an MLC under the MLAs’ quota and he might get the cabinet berth immediately.

It remains to be seen whether Rajasekhar will be lucky to get the chance at least now!