Revanth Reddy Is Telangana Chief Minister, 11 Join Cabinet. Who Are They?

Hyderabad:

Revanth Reddy was sworn in as Chief Minister of Telangana this afternoon, days after he led his party to a comfortable win in last month’s Assembly election. Mr Reddy, 54, took his oath at a grand ceremony at Hyderabad’s LB Stadium. Eleven of his colleagues took their oath with him, including Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, a chief ministerial aspirant who was sworn in as Mr Reddy’s deputy.

READ | Revanth Reddy To Be Telangana Chief Minister With 12 Ministers

Senior Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra attended, as did party boss Mallikarjun Kharge and the chiefs of various state units. 

READ | Revanth Reddy: Next Telangana Chief Minister Once Had Egg Thrown

The Congress’ Gaddam Prasad Kumar, who beat Anand Methuku of the outgoing BRS and trounced P Naveen Kumar of the BJP to win the Vicarabad Assembly seat, will be the Speaker.

Who Are The 12 To Take Oath?

Apart from Mr Reddy, the incoming ministers are:

Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka: Also in the (short-lived) race to become Chief Minister, Mr Vikramarka is a Congress veteran and the Leader of the Opposition in the outgoing Assembly. A member of the Mala community, listed as a Scheduled Caste, he delivered 11 of 12 seats in the state’s Khammam district.

As part of his efforts for the Congress’ win, he undertook a four-month padyatra, or foot march, that covered nearly 1,370 km. Mr Reddy won the Madhira seat, which he has held since 2009.

Uttam Kumar Reddy: The third Congress leader in the Chief Minister race, Mr Reddy is a party loyalist and former Air Force pilot to boot. Now a seven-time election-winner, Uttam Kumar Reddy was also boss of the party’s state unit before he was replaced with Revanth Reddy in 2021.

Before the election he was the party’s Lok Sabha MP from Telangana’s Nalgonda – a seat he resigned since the Constitution forbids an individual from being an MP and MLA at the same time.

READ | BJP MPs Who Won State Polls Quit Parliament, Including Chief Minister Hopefuls

Mr Reddy won the Huzurnagar seat.

Sridhar Babu: Another Congress loyalist, Mr Babu was Chairman of the party’s manifesto committee and is, therefore, someone who understands the promises made to voters. A member of the Brahmin community, he was also a MLA in the undivided Andhra Pradesh government (when the Congress was in power) and served as the Minister for Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs.

Now in his fifth term as a MLA, Mr Babu won the Manthani seat, which he held for three consecutive terms between 1999 and 2009.

Ponnam Prabhakar: A politician since his student days, Mr Prabhakar is the former Karimnagar Lok Sabha MP; he won the seat – previously held by outgoing Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao – in 2009 but lost it to the BRS’ BV Kumar in 2014 and the BJP’s Bandi Sanjay Kumar in 2019.

A member of the Goud community, listed as a Backward Class, he won the Husnabad seat.

Komatireddy Venkat Reddy: Yet another veteran – with over three decades in the party – Mr Reddy was another Congress Lok Sabha MP who was fielded in this election and who has resigned in order to become a Telangana minister. And, like Mr Vikramarka, he played a key role in ensuring the Congress swept his district – the party won 11 of 12 seats in Nalgonda.

Mr Reddy won the Nalgonda seat, which he won thrice between 1999 and 2009 before being beaten decisively by the BRS’ KB Reddy in 2018. He won the seat back from his rival this election.

Damodar Raja Narasimha: The former Deputy Chief Minister of (undivided) Andhra Pradesh, Mr Narasimha was also Minister of Higher Education and Agriculture. A Dalit from Telangana’s Medak area, he won the Andole Assembly seat, recovering it from the BRS that won it in two previous polls.

Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy: Elected to the Khammam Lok Sabha seat in 2014, on a ticket from Andhra Pradesh’s ruling YSR Congress Party, he joined the BRS in 2018 and the Congress just before this election. Called the ‘strongman’ of the district, he won the Palairu seat by over 56,000 votes.

Dana Anasuya: Popularly called Seethakka, Ms Anasuya is a member of a tribal community from Mulugu district and is fondly referred to by incoming Chief Minister Revanth Reddy as his “sister”.

Interstingly, Ms Anasuya was a member of a Naxalite group before she joined politics; she joined as a young girl but quit after being disillusioned and is now also a trained lawyer with a Ph.D in political science. She won the Mulug Assembly seat.

Thummala Nageswar Rao: Previously with ex-Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrabau Naidu’s TDP, Mr Rao was a three-time MLA with that party before he joined rivals BRS in 2014, where he served as Minister for Roads and Buildings. He quit the BRS and joined the Congress ahead of this election because he was denied a ticket.

From Telangana’s Khammam district, Mr Rao won that Assembly seat; he earlier won this in 2009, when with the TDP and when it was part of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.

Konda Surekha: A seasoned Telangana politician, Ms Surekha won the Warangal (East) Assembly seat that she first won in the 2014 election. Impressively, she has lost only twice in eight electoral contests – the bypoll to the Parkal seat in 2012 and the full election to the same seat in 2018.

She belongs to the Padmashali community, which is designated as a Backward Class.

Jupally Krishna Rao: He started as a bank employee before being elected to the Kollapur Assembly seat for five consecutive terms starting in 1999. The first term was an independent candidate and the last two (in 2012 and 2014) were as a member of the BRS. He lost to the Congress in 2018.

He is a member of the Velama caste.

NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.