HYDERABAD: PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana will keep his place in the ministry for now with the party high command telling chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy Wednesday to limit his cabinet recast to induction of two PRP legislators, Ghanta Srinvasa Rao and C Ramachandraiah, and removal of one minister, P Shankar Rao.The two inductees, both with a TDP history, will be sworn in at 11.43 a.m.at Raj Bhavan Thursday.According to sources, the chief minister obtained permission of the high command to drop loose cannon minister Shankar Rao.But that seems to be the only solace he secured.He has apparently had to give in on his desire to nudge Botcha out of the ministry and stop the induction of C Ramachandraiah, an MLC who has excited the hopes of many other members of the Legislative Council.Ahead of Kiran Kumar Reddy’s arrival in Delhi Tuesday evening, Botcha hopped on a direct flight to the capital from Visakhapatnam and began his moves to stave off his easing out.He conferred with AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad and is understood to have argued against a full-blown cabinet reshuffle at this juncture because it would lead to complications in the ensuing byelections in Telangana and Andhra regions.Azad and Kiran Kumar met Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday morning and discussed the pros and cons for about an hour.Then Gandhi is reported to have suggested to Kiran to discuss the issue once again with Azad and her political secretary Ahmed Patel.Meanwhile, Botcha met Azad once again and pressed his case for limiting the exercise to induction of the PRP duo because any trouble from disappointed Congress MLCs could somehow be handled.The chief minister wanted either a reshuffle or a postponement of the exercise rather than induct the PRP legislators and trigger the ire of other MLC aspirants, who have already written a letter to the Congress president that senior leaders like Paladugu Venkata Rao, Mohammed Jani and D Srinivas should be considered ahead of Ramachandraiah.Kiran Kumar is understood to have pleaded for a full-fledged reshuffle in order to get rid of D L Ravindra Reddy and Botcha, who doubles as PCC presdient and transport minister.He is also understood to have told the high command that induction of Srinivasa Rao and Ramachandraiah would make make the Kapu community overrepresented in the cabinet.This apart, after sacking Shankar Rao, there would be three vacancies from Telangana which would need to be filled.Kiran Kumar had in mind Capt N Uttam Kumar Reddy (Huzurnagar) and Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy (Warangal) for places in the cabinet.
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