For the second successive term, women MLAs do not find any place in the council of ministers of Telangana government. It continues to be an all-male cabinet in Telangana.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who expanded his two-member cabinet on Monday, did not bother about giving representation to at least one woman MLA.

Out of 119 assembly seats, KCR gave the party tickets to only six women, of which three MLAs won their seats.

Padma Devender Reddy, who was Deputy Speaker in the dissolved House, has been re-elected from Medak constituency.

TRS candidate for Khanapur Assembly constituency Rekha Naik a tribal and Gongidi Sunitha Reddy from Alair also retained their seats.

In the last cabinet between 2014 and 2018, too, KCR did not take even a single woman MLA into his cabinet.

It was expected that at least this time, the TRS chief would give representation to at least one of the three women MLAs, but he disappointed them once again.

Ironically, KCR’s daughter and Nizamabad MP Kalvakuntla Kavitha shouts from the rooftops about lack of adequate representation to women in the state and central legislatures and pitches for women’s reservation bill in Parliament. But she conveniently ignored the neglect of women by her own father in his government in Telangana.

As expected, KCR inducted 10 ministers in the cabinet which was expanded after a gap of 67 days of coming to power for a second successive term.

It was on December 13 that KCR was sworn in as the chief minister along with senior cabinet colleague Md Mahmud Ali and since then, the expansion has been hanging in balance.

Now, the strength of the cabinet has gone up to 12. The chief minister can induct another six ministers but he will do it only after Lok Sabha elections.

Governor of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh E S L Narasimhan administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers at Raj Bhavan at 11.33 am.

While four ministers – Etela Rajender from Huzurabad, G Jagadeesh Reddy from Suryapet, Talasani Srinivas Yadav from Sanathnagar and Allola Indrakaran Reddy from Nirmal held the cabinet posts in the previous tenure, the remaining six – Singireddy Niranjan Reddy (Vanaparthi), Koppula Eswar (Dharmapuri), Errabelli Dayakar Rao (Palakurthi), Vemula Prasanth Reddy (Balkonda, V Srinivas Goud (Mahabubnagar) and Chamakura Malla Reddy (Medchal) were inducted into the cabinet for the first time.

Senior Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader and Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao is definitely a disgruntled man for being denied a berth in the Telangana cabinet which was expanded by his uncle, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday.

But, Harish Rao did not show it up on his face, when he came to Raj Bhavan to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the 10 newly inducted ministers.

He sat beside his brother-in-law and KCR’s son K T Rama Rao and was found chatting with him without any expressions on his face.

Like Harish Rao, KTR also did not make it to the cabinet, but there is a difference between the two. Though he did not get the cabinet post, KTR is already a de facto chief minister who has been indirectly calling the shots in the administration. And in any case, he is likely to ascend the CM throne soon after the Lok Sabha elections.

However, Harish Rao, who held the most important portfolio of irrigation in the previous government, was deliberately left out, as it was pretty evident that KCR does not want him to pose any threat to KTR if the latter becomes the chief minister.

Though there is a talk that Harish Rao will be forced to contest Lok Sabha elections from Medak, latest reports say it is unlikely and he will be asked to continue just as an MLA.

This has left Harish sulking, but he tried to put up a brave face.

“I am prepared to work as an ordinary TRS worker. I am not unhappy with not getting the cabinet berth,” he told media after the swearing-in ceremony.

He said he was a loyal TRS worker and he would abide by whatever decision his party leader KCR took.

“I am ready to accept whatever responsibility I am entrusted with. I have no groups in the party,” he said and appealed to the media not to go by any reports in the social media about his disgruntlement.

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao on Tuesday expanded his cabinet with the induction of 10 new ministers.

Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan administered the oath of office and secrecy to the ministers at a ceremony held at Raj Bhavan.

Of the new ministers sworn in, five were in the previous cabinet while the rest are first-time ministers.

The ministers who took oath are A. Indrakaran Reddy, Eatala Rajender, Koppula Eshwar, T. Srinivas Yadav, V. Prashanth Reddy, S. Niranjan Reddy, V. Srinivas Goud, E. Dayakar Rao, Malla Reddy and G. Jagadishwar Reddy.

KCR, as Rao is popularly known, has not included his son K. T. Rama Rao and nephew T. Harish Rao who were ministers in his previous cabinet.

Rama Rao was appointed as Working President of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) following the party’s landslide victory in the December 7 Assembly elections.

This was the first cabinet expansion by KCR, who took over as the Chief Minister for a second term on December 13.

YSR Congress party president and leader of opposition Y S Jaganmohan Reddy is understood to have made it clear to his party leaders that he would not entertain any defectors after February 20.

He virtually set February 20 as the deadline for the leaders from other parties who were willing to join the YSRC.

He reportedly gave instructions that those who joined before the deadline will only get the party ticket to contest the elections.

Even if some leaders want to join the party at a later stage, they would not be considered for giving the party tickets to fight the coming elections.

According to party sources, Jagan will be leaving for London on February 20 to spend some time with his daughter Varsha Reddy, who is pursuing her graduation in economics at London School of Economics.

In fact, he was supposed to visit his daughter last month itself, but dropped out at the last moment as she was busy with her examinations and would not be able to spend time with her parents.

Jagan will be back to Hyderabad only after five or six days and by that time, the election atmosphere would be charged up and he would have hectic schedule for electioneering.

So, he wants to finish off the selection of candidates at the earliest. As such, there would be no place for defectors at the later stage.

It is learnt that at least 20 leaders from ruling TDP are seriously planning to shift loyalties to Jagan’s party sooner or later.