State Cabinet revamp top on AP CM's agenda during Delhi visit

Getting the Congress high command's approval for revamp of the state council of ministers will be top on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy's agenda when he visits New Delhi on May 30.
The Chief Minister is visiting the national capital for a meeting with the officials of the Planning Commission. But he is expected to meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and other leaders to discuss the Cabinet revamp issue.
As the state heads for elections next year, filling up the existing vacancies as well as those caused by the recent resignation of two "tainted" ministers has become inevitable as crucial departments remain headless.

Besides, Reddy wants his men to be inducted so as to "neutralise" the dissidence within the Cabinet.
If the high command gives its green signal, the Cabinet rejig is expected to take place in the first week of June before the budget session of the state legislature resumes or will have to be delayed till the third week when the session concludes.
State Home Minister Sabita Indra Reddy and Roads and Buildings Minister Dharmana Prasada Rao quit the Cabinet after they were charge-sheeted in the illegal assets case of Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.

Their resignations were finally accepted on Sunday and the two portfolios were allotted to the Chief Minister.

The demand for removal of at least three other ministers Ponnala Lakshmaiah, J Geeta Reddy and Kanna Lakshminarayana, who are also under the CBI scanner in the Jagan's case, is growing not only from the Opposition, but also from many in the ruling party.
"These three ministers will also have to go as per the party's policy (against corruption)," Guntur MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao said today.
With the CBI about to file more charge-sheets in the cases related to Jagan, the three ministers are likely to figure in them going by the investigation so far. In the event, the charge-sheeted ministers' exit becomes inevitable.

The Chief Minister would discuss all these aspects with the high command and get necessary directions on how to go about the exercise, party sources indicated.