NTR district gets raw deal in state Cabinet

Vijayawada: NTR district got a raw deal in the allotment of berths in the State Cabinet. Though the TDP and BJP candidates registered landslide victories by winning all seven segments in NTR district, none of the leaders got the minister’s portfolio in the Cabinet. Four times MLA, three times MLA and two times MLAs did not get a berth in the state Cabinet.

The TDP has given priority to the leaders of Nuzvid and Machilipatnam from the erstwhile Krishna district. Nuzvid was part of erstwhile Krishna district and now is in Eluru district. Kolusu Parthasarathy, the TDP candidate won the elections from Nuzvid and got a portfolio in the Chandrababu Naidu 4.0 cabinet. Kollu Ravindra, the TDP leader and former minister from Machilipatnam won the elections second time and got the portfolio in the Cabinet. NTR district leader Gadde Rammohan was elected four times for Assembly and one time to Lok Sabha.

He was elected three times from Vijayawada East segment and one time from Gannavaram. He was elected to Lok Sabha also. But his name was not figured in the list of ministers announced by TDP chief Naidu. Jaggaiahpet TDP leader Sriram Rajgopal was elected three times for Assembly. He defeated the sitting MLA Samineni Udayabhanu in the recently held elections. Rajgopal too did not get a minister post in the Cabinet. Rajgopal belongs to Arya Vysya caste and is one of the senior TDP leaders of NTR district.

TDP leader Vasanta Krishna Prasad was elected from Mylavaram two times consecutively. The Kamma leader is one of the contenders from Kamma caste for the berth in the cabinet. His father Vasantha Nageswara Rao is the veteran leader and former home minister in the cabinet of NT Rama Rao. Vasanta Krishna Prasad’s name was also not in the list of ministers who took the oath on Wednesday.

Tangirala Sowmya has been elected from Nandigama for the second time. She belongs to SC category and she could not get the minister post.

BJP leader and former Union minister Sujana Chowdary won from Vijayawada West assembly segment. The BJP got only one portfolio in the state cabinet and it was given to Satya Kumar Yadav. Sujana Chowdary’s name is not in the list of ministers.

The previous YSRCP government also ignored the NTR district and gave preference to Krishna district. Gudivada former MLA Kodali Nani, Machilipatnam former MLA Perni Nani and Pedana former MLA Jogi Ramesh got portfolios. Vijayawada leader Velampalli Srinivas was the only candidate who got a portfolio from NTR district. He was elected from Vijayawada West segment in 2019 and worked as the minister of endowments.