Vijayawada: The newly sworn-in Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N Chandrababu Naidu has tried to make a balancing act in picking his cabinet. He has allotted three berths to key ally Jana Sena and one to his other ally, the BJP.
From Jana Sena, he has picked party supremo Pawan Kalyan, his trusted lieutenant along with former Andhra Pradesh assembly speaker Nadendla Manohar, and Kandula Durgesh.
From the BJP, the party's national secretary, V Satya Kuar Yadav, who won from Dharmavaram, was chosen.
In all, Naidu picked 24 MLAs as ministers, who all took oaths on Wednesday.
The list of 24 ministers, including Pawan Kalyan, was announced late on Tuesday night. Though, Naidu picked 25 ministers, one seat has been kept vacant.
Sources close to Naidu told Deccan Herald that Naidu has picked his team of cabinet members, balancing the aspirations of different social groups, regions, and communities with seniority in addition to young blood.
Payakaraopet MLA Vangalapudi Anitha at 40 is the youngest minister in Naidu's cabinet, followed by Nara Lokesh at 41, Kondapalli Srinivas at 42, and Tridalli Rama Prasad Reddy at 42.
On the other hand, the 75-year-old NMD Farook is the eldest of the lot, followed by Naidu, who himself is 74, and Anam Rama Narayana Reddy, who is 71.
In all Naidu's cabinet consists of eight BCs, two SCs, one ST, one Muslim, one Vaishya, and among them are three women. There are at least 17 new faces in the cabinet.
the OCs, Kapus and Kammas received four votes each, while Reddys received three votes. Naidu reportedly released the list after midnight, following a discussion with Amit Shah, who visited Naidu's residence for talks.
Andhra Pradesh Cabinet:
1. Nara Chandrababu Naidu
2. Pawan Kalyan
3. Kinjarapu Atchannaidu
4. Nara Lokesh
5. Kollu Ravindra
6. Nadendla Manohar
7. P Narayana
8. Vangalapudi Anitha
9. Satya Kumar Yadav
10. Nimmala Ramanaidu
11. NMD Farook
12. Anam Ramanarayana Reddy
13. Payyavula Keshav
14. Anagani Satya Prasad
15. Kolusu Parthasarathy
16. Dola Balaveeranjaneyaswamy
17. Gottipati Ravi
18. Kandula Durgesh
19. Gummadi Sandhyarani
20. BC Janardhan Reddy
21. TG Bharat
22. S Savitha
23. Vasamshetty Subash
24. Kondapalli Srinivas
25. Mandipalli Ram Prasad Reddy