Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Sunday expanded his Cabinet by inducting three ministers.
G. Vivek Venkataswamy, Adluri Laxman Kumar and Vakiti Srihari were sworn in as ministers by Governor Jishnu Dev Varma at Raj Bhavan.
Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, his Cabinet colleagues, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president Mahesh Kumar Goud and senior officials attended the ceremony.
Vivek took oath in English while the remaining two were sworn in Telugu.
This is the first expansion in the Cabinet, which was formed on December 7, 2023, with the swearing-in of the Chief Minister and 11 ministers.
The long-delayed expansion took place after the All India Congress Committee (AICC) cleared the names of three ministers.
Though there are vacancies in the Cabinet, the party leadership decided to keep three posts vacant. The state can have a maximum of 18 ministers, including the Chief Minister.
Vivek Venkataswamy, a former MP and son of former Union Minister G. Venkataswamy, and Government Whip Adluri Laxman are from the Scheduled Castes, while Srihari is from the Backward Classes. Ramachandru Naik is a tribal MLA.
Venkataswamy, an industrialist, had quit the BJP to join Congress a few weeks before the 2023 Assembly elections.
He was elected to Parliament in 2009 from the Peddapalli constituency. He later joined TRS (now BRS) to put pressure on the Congress over the demand for statehood for Telangana.
After the Telangana Bill was passed in the Parliament in 2014, he returned to Congress.
He again returned to the TRS in 2016. In 2019, he resigned as advisor to the Telangana government and quit the ruling party after he was denied a ticket to contest from the Peddapalli Lok Sabha seat. He joined the BJP, which he quit again in November 2023 to return to Congress.
He was elected to the Assembly from Chennur constituency in Mancherial district in 2023, defeating sitting MLA Balka Suman of BRS.
Adluri Laxman Kumar is a senior Congress leader and first-time MLA from Dharmapuri in Jagitial district.
Srihari, who began his political career as a Youth Congress leader, has also been associated with Congress for over three decades. He was elected to the Assembly from the Makthal Assembly constituency in Narayanpet district.
Earlier, the Chief Minister also announced that Ramachandra Naik will be appointed as Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. He is an MLA from Dornakal constituency in Mahabubabad district.
–IANS
