Cong maintains social engineering in TG Cabinet expansion

Eighteen months after taking over as Telangana chief minister, A Revanth Reddy expanded his Cabinet by inducting three new ministers after finally getting the nod from the High Command.

- STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE

Three new ministers - Gaddam Vivek Venkataswamy, Vakiti Srihari and Adhuri Laxman Kumar were sworn in today by Governor Jishnu Dev Varma, as Reddy stuck to maintaining social balance by including representatives of both Madiga and Mala communities of Scheduled Castes and Mudiraj community among Backward Classes.

However, the Cabinet expansion has created heartburn for several aspirants and AICC in charge Meenakshi Natarajan and PCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud had to rush in to smooth the ruffled feathers.

Meanwhile, Telangana would soon see a bypoll with the passing away of Jubilee Hills MLA Maganti Gopinath today after a heart attack.

Gopinath, who belonged to BRS, had defeated Mohammad Azharuddin of the Congress with ample help from AIMIM.