It looks like Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has given importance to defectors from other parties, rather than those who have been loyal to the party right from the beginning, in the reshuffling and expansion of his cabinet on Sunday.
Of the 11 ministers who were sworn in as the ministers, at least six ministers had defected from other political parties either before or after the 2014 elections.
Of them, Sujaya Venkata Krishna Ranga Rao, Bhuma Akhila Priya, N Amarnath Reddy and Adinarayana Reddy had defected from the YSR Congress party and they were bitter critics of the TDP while they were in the Opposition.
Of the remaining, Pithani Satyanarayana was in the Congress party for a long time and was a minister in the Y S Rajasekhar Reddy and N Kiran Kumar Reddy governments.
Similarly, Kimidi Kala Venkat Rao, who had been with the TDP since 1983, had deserted the party when it was in deep crisis.
He joined the Praja Rajyam Party floated by Chiranjeevi and returned to the TDP just before the 2014 elections.
Among the new ministers, Naidu also given cabinet berths to inexperienced politicians – his son Nara Lokesh and Allagadda MLA Bhuma Akhila Priya.
Even K S Jawahar from Kovvur assembly constituency in East Godavari district is a first time MLA, but has been in politics for quite some time.
