Newly elected BJP MP from Secunderabad constituency G Kishan Reddy left to New Delhi on Thursday to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Kishan Reddy told TNM that the BJP leadership has informed him that he would be sworn in as a minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet. However, it is unclear if he would be given charge as a Union Minister or as a Minister of State.
Speaking to TNM, Reddy said,"My berth in the cabinet is confirmed. Amit Shah had phoned me and asked to come to Delhi to partake in the swearing-in ceremony. The discussion over which portfolio would be given to me is yet to happen. Post the swearing-in, that discussion will take place."
Bandaru Dattatreya, who was the lone BJP MP from Telangana in 2014 had served as the Labour Minister in the first Narendra Modi cabinet.
By inducting Kishan Reddy, a former state party president, into the cabinet, the BJP wants to strengthen its position in Telangana. In the Lok Sabha elections, the party performed extremely well by doubling its vote share and winning four seats.
Kishan Reddy was a three-time MLA who had won two consecutive terms from Amberpet assembly seat. However, he lost the seat in the recently-held Assembly elections to TRS candidate Kaleru Venkatesh.
Undeterred by the defeat, Reddy contested from the Secunderabad Lok Sabha seat, which was held by Dattatreya, and pulled off a victory against debutant Talasani Saikrishna. Reddy won with a margin of more than 62,000 votes.
Not just Reddy, his other three colleagues--Soyam Bapu Rao, D Arvind and Bandi Sanjay surprised the TRS party and won the Lok Sabha seats from Adilabad, Nizamabad and Karimnagar respectively.
Meanwhile, ahead of Modi’s swearing-in ceremony, BJP leaders Rajnath Singh, Piyush Goyal, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Prakash Javadekar, Smriti Irani, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore who are likely to be re-inducted into the cabinet, met party president Amit Shah at his residence on Thursday.
Among these leaders, Finance minister Arun Jaitley has opted out of the cabinet citing his health condition.
WIth IANS inputs