Cabinet expansion today, KCR likely to induct 8-10 ministers

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has kept the aspirants on tenterhooks till late in the night and only 11 of them had received the telephone call. Though the CM can have 18 members in his cabinet, including himself, sources said that only 11 would be sworn in on Tuesday and the remaining would be inducted after the Lok Sabha elections.  Presently, there are only two ministers in the cabinet, i.e, Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao and Home Minister Md Mahamood Ali.

The caste composition of the cabinet would be five Reddys, three BCs, and one each from Velama, SC and ST. There would be seven new faces in the cabinet and four are former ministers -- Rajender, Jagadish Reddy, Indrakaran Reddy and Srinivas Yadav.

Portfolios would be given after the swearing-in ceremony as the Chief Minister has taken up elaborate exercise by merging a few departments.  It is learnt that KCR would keep Irrigation and Revenue departments.  Niranjan Reddy is likely to be given Finance as he was heading the state planning board earlier.