11 ministers likely to oath with Revanth Reddy

Hyderabad, Dec 7 (IANS) Senior leaders C. Damodar Rajanarsimha, Uttam Kumar Reddy and Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka are among 11 newly-elected Congress MLAs in Telangana set to take oath as ministers along with A. Revanth Reddy, who will be sworn in as the chief minister Thursday afternoon.

Komati Reddy Venkat Reddy, Danasari Anasuya Seethakka, Ponnam Prabhakar, Sridhar Babu, Tummala Nageshwar Rao, Konda Surekha, Jupally Krishna Rao and Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy are the other leaders likely to take oath as ministers.

Revanth Reddy is understood to have personally informed them over phone about their induction in the Cabinet.

The names were decided during a series of meetings Reddy had in New Delhi on Wednesday with AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and other key leaders.

Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, who was the leader of Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in the dissolved Assembly, is likely to be appointed as the deputy chief minister. He and Uttam Kumar Reddy were seen as contenders for the chief minister’s post but the leadership decided to go with Revanth Reddy, who led the party’s election campaign.

A meeting of newly-elected MLAs held on December 4 had authorised AICC president Kharge to name the CLP leader.

Later, the leadership had summoned Uttam Kumar Reddy and Vikramarka to Delhi. Following their meetings with some key central leaders, the party announced Revanth Reddy as the CLP leader.