Naidu shifts focus to Andhra cabinet formation, Pawan Kalyan may get DyCM post

Hyderabad: TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu, who returned from Delhi to Amaravati on Monday after the swearing-in ceremony of the Union cabinet, has shifted his focus to Andhra Pradesh cabinet formation. His swearing in as the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh is scheduled on June 12.

Naidu wants to finish the exercise of picking his ministers before his swearing-in ceremony. The TDP chief can accommodate 25 ministers, and the list of aspirants is long. He has to do a balancing act, taking into consideration the experience, caste and regional aspirations, as well as the interests of his allies, the BJP and Jana Sena.

Sources in the TDP said that key ally Jana Sena, which won 21 Assembly seats, was going to get a good representation in the state cabinet. In addition, the BJP, which got eight seats, is also expected to secure prominent positions.

Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan could potentially join the cabinet as a deputy chief minister and receive a significant portfolio such as Home. Unlike the previous YSRCP government which had five deputy chief ministers representing various social groups, Naidu is likely to have only one deputy.

It is learnt that Pawan Kalyan declined the offer to join the Union cabinet in order to increase his party's representation in the state cabinet. The BJP may get two to three berths in the Andhra Pradesh cabinet. Also, it is closely watched if Naidu's son, Nara Lokesh, will become a minister. Lokesh served as IT minister in Naidu's last tenure, between 2014 and 2019.

He appears to have emerged as a power centre in the party. Interestingly, all the cabinet berth aspirants, seniors and juniors, have been visiting Lokesh ever since the TDP alliance swept the polls.