Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s 34-year-old son Nara Lokesh took his oath as a state minister on Sunday, as part of a Cabinet reshuffle. This is the first time Naidu has expanded and reshuffled his Cabinet since the Telugu Desam Party-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance came to power in the state in 2014. Naidu dropped five ministers and added 10 new ones in addition to his son, who is the TDP’s general secretary.
Four MLAs from the opposing YSR Congress party, who had switched sides to the TDP-BJP coalition, were also inducted into the state Cabinet. They are: R V Sujay Krishna Rao, Bhuma Akhila Priya, Ch Adinarayana Reddy and N Amarnatha Reddy. The other TDP members who were given ministerial positions are: Pithani Satyanarayana, Nakka Ananda Babu, Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy, Kalva Srinivasulu and Kothapalli Samuel Jawahar. Governor ESL Narsimhan administered the oaths of office.
Soon after the ceremony, Bojjala Gopala Krishna Reddy, one of the ministers who had been dropped from the Cabinet, resigned from the Assembly. The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet now has 26 members, as against 21.
On March 8, eight MLAs of the TDP had elected Lokesh as an MLC, and he was formally admitted to the Legislative Council on March 20. Lokesh has a degree from Stanford University and Naidu is believed to have told his party members that “now is the correct time for Lokesh to step into government when the development of the capital and other massive infrastructure projects are taking shape.”
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