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Naidu’s ministry reshuffle shows identity politics can't be wished away

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Amarnath K Menon
Amarnath K MenonApr 07, 2017 | 10:12

Naidu’s ministry reshuffle shows identity politics can't be wished away

Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who has shuffled his ministry recently, drawing flak for opportunism and caste politics, has once again reinforced beliefs that identity politics cannot be wished away even by a relatively modern and progressive leader like him in this country.

On April 2, for the first time since he constituted his Cabinet on June 8, 2014, Naidu chopped and changed charges in his ministry to expand it from the earlier strength of 20 to the permissible limit of 26. He grabbed this opportunity to induct his only child, the Stanford business graduate Nara Lokesh, as the state’s minister for information technology and panchayati raj, barely weeks after he was elected a member of the state legislative council, avoiding the conventional test and trial by fire — that is, elected directly by the people from an Assembly constituency.

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Naidu's son, Nara Lokesh, being inducted as the state’s minister for information technology and panchayati raj.

This is the most significant of the 11 inclusions for it is the first time in the Telugu states that a father-son duo are in the state Cabinet.

Naidu has skirted questions about the inclusion of his son at a time when some of his own party leaders have opposed the shuffle. B Gopalakrishna Reddy, a minister who was dropped, has tendered his resignation from the legislative assembly while two other senior leaders — TDP general secretary G Butchaiah Chowdary and a legislator Kagitha Venkata Rao — have quit the party.

For his part, as a gen-next politician, Lokesh tweeted that he did not want to slaughter an MLA by getting one to vacate a seat for his election and, therefore, opted for the legislative council route to become the minister.

What is baffling though is the extent to which Naidu’s media managers have gone to explain how he plans a giant leap backwards by having eight from the backward class communities, all senior leaders, to account for 30 per cent of the ministry. The strength of the Kamma caste cohort to which Naidu belongs has risen from five to six while it is constant at four for the intermediate Kapu caste that is vociferous in demand for inclusion among the Backward Class communities to enjoy education and employment opportunities offered by reservations.

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There are no Muslims even after the shuffle prompting some to allege that Naidu is working with a single point agenda to cement the bond with the Bharatiya Janata Party as this is the first TDP government in three decades to run without a minority face in the Cabinet. Incidentally, two of Naidu’s ministerial colleagues are from the BJP who were accommodated following a pre-poll pact.

Significantly, Naidu doubled the number of Reddys to four, keeping in mind that the community is reckoned as the chief votary of the rival YSR Congress steered by his bête noire YS Jaganmohan Reddy. This is clearly with an eye on the votes of Reddys and BCs in the Rayalaseema region from where Naidu hails. While his party is strong in coastal Andhra Pradesh, Naidu is keen on clipping the wings of Jagan, as he is known, in Rayalaseema to enable the ruling TDP to coast to a comfortable comeback in the next Assembly election.

This is why he has included three from among the Reddy caste of Rayalaseema, who were elected on YSR Congress ticket in 2014 but whose resignations from the Assembly have not been accepted by Speaker Kodela Sivaprasad Rao, as ministers. In all, he has included four from the 21 YSR Congress MLAs of similar standing, from among the 67 elected on that party ticket in 2014, into the ministry to kick up a row.

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Jagan is demanding that their resignations be accepted forthwith and by-elections called to test whether their action in defecting from his party meets people’s approval. The YSR Congress has taken up the issue with the state governor ESL Narasimhan and President Pranab Mukherjee. Jagan wants all defectors to be divested of their seats. He is complaining about the "derailing of democracy" in the state and is organising protests on April 7 in the constituencies of all MLAs who have switched loyalties to the TDP.

The YSR Congress reasoning is that a person is deemed to be belonging to that political party which gave him the candidature for the election. Thus, those who were elected as YSR Congress candidates and now inducted into the TDP stand disqualified from the membership of the legislature from the day on which they switched and confirmed their association with the ruling TDP.

Further, the Constitution’s 52nd Amendment Act, 1985, makes it abundantly clear that “the evil of political defections has been a matter of national concern and if it is not combated, it is likely to undermine the very foundations of democracy and the principles which sustain it.”

Jagan is left with no option but to fight with his back to the wall.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)

Last updated: April 07, 2017 | 10:12
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