Central minister Chiranjeevi-who took the oath of office yesterday-exuded confidence that Congress in the state would retain its power in 2014. He has also said that this last reshuffle would help the United Progressive Alliance to win 2014 elections. Chiranjeevi expressed his confidence in prime minister Manmohan Singh's cabinet and said that induction of young leaders such as Sachin Pilot, Jyothiradithya Scindia and Manish Tiwari would make Congress have an edge over other parties.

It is known that out of 22 new faces, who swore yesterday at Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi, five leaders were from Andhra Pradesh. Commenting on the same, PCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana has said he was happy that  Andhra Pradesh got its due share in the union cabinet. He even thanked prime minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi over the same. Notably, now there are 11 ministers in the cabinet, which happens to be the highest in the history of Andhra Pradesh. When PV Narasimha Rao (who hailed from AP) was the prime minister, eight MP s from state were inducted into the cabinet. After that, this happens to be the highest. Out of these 11 MP s, three of them are from BC communities—Chiranjeevi, Killi Kruparani and Pallam Raju; two of them are from tribals—Balram Naik and Kishore Chandra Deo; one from kamma—D Purandareshwari and two from Reddy community—Kotla Jaya Suryaprakash Reddy and S Jaipal Reddy.

Therefore, the observers have said that Congress high command strategically designed the reshuffle in order to ensure that people from all communities get the equal share. However, for the first time Congress seemed to have identified the massive kapu vote bank, which according to the political analysts, is crucial for the victory of any political party. So, if Congress follows the same principle, then Chiranjeevi is undoubtedly going to become the chief minister candidate in 2014 election, they added.

(AW Phani)