HYDERABAD: TRS working president KT Rama Rao and former irrigation minister T Harish Rao, the two most important leaders in the party after Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, will not find a place in the Cabinet when Rao expands his cabinet at Raj Bhavan here on Tuesday.

This apart, the Cabinet expansion, taking place after more than two months since Chandrasekhar Rao took over as chief minister for a second term in December last along with Mohammad Mahmood Ali as the lone minister,  is being limited only to 10 MLAs, leaving six slots vacant for expansion, most probably after the Lok Sabha elections.

The Chief Minister finalised the list of the lucky MLAs after a delicate balancing act in accommodating MLAs of different castes since no community should be left out. There will not be any woman member in the Cabinet as was the case during KCR’s first term.

According to sources, the ten legislators to be inducted into the cabinet are: A Indrakaran Reddy (Nirmal),  V Prashanth Reddy (Balkonda), Ch Malla Reddy (Medchal),  G Jagadish Reddy (Suryapet), S Niranjan Reddy (Wanaparthy), V Srinivasa Goud (BC Mahabubnagar), Eatela Rajender (BC Huzurabad), Talasani Srinivasa Yadav (BC Sanatnagar), Errabilli Dayakar Rao (Velama-Palakurhty) and Koppula Eeswar (SC Dharmapuri). The Cabinet, if one goes by its caste composition will be Reddy-heavy as there would be five Reddys, followed by three BCs, one SC and one Velama.

Khammam is the only district which is not being represented in the Cabinet. There is no one from Medak since KCR himself represents the district from Gajwel.But, a lot will happen between the cup and the lip. There is a possibility of some Opposition MLAs  switching their loyalties to TRS. If the Congress fails to win at least one seat, its presence in the Council will be nil. Recently, some Congress MLCs joined the TRS  with only Sudhakar Reddy and Shabbir remaining in the party. Thus, the Congress had already lost the Opposition status in the Council. Now, there is a possibility of Congress becoming zero in the Council.

Meanwhile, the term of Home Minister Mahmood Ali too is coming to an end. However, the ruling TRS is likely to send the Home Minister again to the Council. With its present strength of 90 MLAs, the TRS is likely to capture all the five seats in the elections. The Election Commission is likely to announce the election schedule on Tuesday for two more seats under MLAs quota, which were vacated recently by Yadava Reddy and Mynampally Hanmantha Rao.

Yadava Reddy, who was elected to the upper House by the MLAs in 2016,  was disqualified for defecting from the TRS to Congress. Hanmantha Rao was elected as an MLA in the recent elections and resigned as MLC.

In the byelections to these two seats, each candidate requires the votes of 60 MLAs each. TRS is likely to grab these two seats with its strength of 98 in the Assembly. The TRS won 88 seats in the Assembly polls and later two more MLAs joined taking their total strength to 90. Seven MIM MLAs too will support the TRS, besides the nominated MLA.

Poll schedule
Feb 21: ECI to issue poll notification for MLCs under MLAs quota
Feb 28: Last date for filing nominations
March1: Scrutiny of nominations

March 5: Last date for withdrawal of nominations  
March 12: Polling to be held, if necessary,                  
March 12: Counting and results to be announced
 Feb 19: Another notification for bypolls under MLAs quota