Hyderabad: Despite nine slots in his Council
of Ministers remaining vacant for over a year now, Andhra
Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah appears to be in no mood to
fill the vacancies immediately.
"No muhurtam (auspicious time) has been fixed for
expansion of the Cabinet," Rosaiah told a press conference
here today, on his return from a three-day trip to New Delhi.
"Waiting for a congenial atmosphere" to expand his
Cabinet had been Rosaiah's reply in last 10 months whenever
the issue was raised.
The Chief Minister remained evasive when asked if time
would come after by election process ends in Telangana region
on July 30. "It will be taken up at an appropriate time," he
remarked.
Rosaiah's meeting with Sonia Gandhi's political secretary
Ahmed Patel and a host of AICC leaders during his New Delhi
visit raised hopes of a long-overdue Cabinet expansion.
"We will continue to manage the same way as we are doing
for the last few months," Rosaiah replied when asked about the
vacant slots in the cabinet.
Apart from the key finance portfolio, the Chief Minister
is also in-charge of other crucial departments like Commercial
Taxes, Excise, Power, Infrastructure and Investment, Women
Development and Child Welfare.
The current Cabinet was formed on May 25, 2009 with Y S
Rajasekhara Reddy as Chief Minister. Following Reddy?s death
in a helicopter crash on September 2 last year, Rosaiah became
the Chief Minister on September 3.
He continued with same set of ministers that worked under
Rajasekhara Reddy. One minister Konda Surekha, however, quit
the Cabinet in protest against non-appointment of Rajasekhara
Reddy's son Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy as the Chief Minister.
-PTI
First Published: Tuesday, July 27, 2010, 21:11