Hyderabad, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao’s son K.T. Rama Rao and nephew T. Harish Rao were among the six ministers who were inducted into the state cabinet on Sunday.
The new ministers were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan at a ceremony held at Raj Bhavan at 4.14 p.m.
The four other ministers who took oath are P. Sabita Indra Reddy, Gangula Kamalakar, Puvvada Ajay Kumar and Satyavati Rathod.
The Chief Minister, his ministers, leaders of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), MPs, state legislators and senior officials attended the ceremony.
Interestingly, Soundararajan administered oath to new ministers a few hours after she was sworn in as Governor.
Chandrasekhar Rao, who had no woman minister in his cabinet during the first term, inducted two women – Sabita Indra Reddy and Satyavati Rathod.
Three of the newly-inducted ministers had earlier served as ministers.
Rama Rao and Harish Rao were in the cabinet during the TRS’ first term in power.
Meanwhile, Chandrasekhar Rao has distributed portfolios among new ministers and changed the portfolio of one minister.
Harish Rao will handle the key portfolio of finance. He was irrigation minister in the earlier cabinet.
Like in the previous cabinet, Rama Rao will look after urban development, municipal administration, industry, information technology and communication.
Sabita Indra Reddy will be the minister for education while Satyavati Rathod has been entrusted with the portfolio of tribal welfare, women and child welfare.
Ajay Kumar will handle the transport department. Kamalakar has been entrusted with the portfolio of backward class welfare, civil supplies and consumer affairs.
Jagdish Reddy, who was handling education portfolio, will now be the minister for energy.
Sabita Indra Reddy was one of the 12 Congress MLAs who had defected to TRS after the latter retained power. She had earlier served as minister in undivided Andhra Pradesh.
This is the second expansion in the state cabinet since TRS retained power in the elections held in December last year.
With this expansion, the strength of the cabinet has gone up to 18, the maximum permitted by the Constitution.
Chandrasekhar Rao had taken oath as the Chief Minister for the second term on December 13. Home Minister Mehmood Ali also took oath with him.
He expanded his cabinet on February 19 by inducting 10 ministers.
