Andhra Pradesh gets largest share in reshuffle

Andhra Pradesh, a crucial state electorally for the Congress, on Sunday got the maximum representation of six in the rejig of the council of ministers, with five new faces and one elevated to the cabinet rank.

M.M. Pallam Raju, a Congress MP from coastal Andhra, has been elevated to cabinet rank from being minister of state in the defence ministry. He is the new human resource development minister replacing Kapil Sibal.

Telugu actor-turned politician K. Chiranjeevi, who merged his Praja Rajyam Party's 18 MLAs with the Congress last year, has become minister of state with independent charge.

The Congress fortunes in the southern state have dipped in recent years with the breakaway YSR Congress party of Jaganmohan Reddy denting its cadre and support base.

Jaganmohan had parted ways with the Congress a year ago after his aspiration to be the state chief minister following his father and former CM Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's death in an air crash in 2009.

Others to be inducted as ministers of state are Kotla Jaya Surya Prakash Reddy from Kurnool, Sarve Satyanarayana from Malkajgiri, Porika Balram Naik from Mahabubabad, and Killi Kruparani from Srikakulam.

The three regions of the state -- Telangana, Coastal Andhra and Rayalseema -- have been given representation.

The state has been in the throes of a sustained and often violent popular movement for the creation of a separate state of Telangana.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/198580" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-b5320bb28a87dcb770fe2aae83d61d53" value="form-b5320bb28a87dcb770fe2aae83d61d53" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80627225" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.