# India

KCR inducts new face in his Cabinet ahead of Assembly polls

Party MLC P Mahender Reddy has been given the consolation prize in the wake of the BRS nominating his arch rival Pilot Rohith Reddy as candidate from Tandur Assembly Constituency for the upcoming elections.

Anindita Chowdhury | Hyderabad | August 25, 2023 6:21 pm

KCR inducts new face in his Cabinet ahead of Assembly polls

In a bid to prevent dissent within his party BRS, Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday inducted party MLC P Mahender Reddy in his Cabinet barely three months before the dissolution of the Assembly.

The move came in the wake of the BRS nominating his arch rival Pilot Rohith Reddy as candidate from Tandur Assembly Constituency for the upcoming elections.

P Mahender Reddy was sworn in by Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan on Thursday in a brief and simple ceremony at Raj Bhavan in the presence of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and other ministers and leaders of the BRS party.

In the 2018 Assembly elections, Pilot Rohith Reddy had defeated P Mahender Reddy from Tandur constituency as a Congress candidate. After his victory, Rohith Reddy chose to join the BRS. He also became the blue-eyed boy of the chief minister after he alerted the Telangana Police about the attempts of the BJP to poach a few BRS MLAs ahead of a bypoll in Munugode the Assembly constituency.

It was at his farm house in Moinabad that the Cyberabad Police had laid a trap to catch the three middlemen with the help of a spycam. The chief minister had publicly hailed Rohith Reddy for his loyalty during the campaign in Munugode. Hence, there was no way the BRS could deny him ticket for the Tandur constituency, especially after he faced interrogation by Central agencies.

However, P Mahender Reddy, a strongman from Vikarabad had to be placated before the elections. Hence Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao worked out a compromise between the two. Mahender Reddy was to be sworn in as a minister in the Cabinet and he would support Rohith Reddy in the upcoming polls.

There was a vacancy since Etela Rajender had quit the BRS and his portfolio – health was given to T Harish Rao and P Mahender Reddy was accommodated accordingly.