Hyderabad, June 11 (IANS) Three days after expanding his Cabinet, Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, on Wednesday, allocated portfolios to three newly-inducted Ministers.

G. Vivek Venkatswamy has been allocated the portfolios of Labour, Employment, Training and Factories and Mines and Geology.

Adluri Laxman Kumar will handle the Scheduled Castes Development Department, Tribal Welfare Department, Minorities Welfare, Department for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Senior Citizens and Transgender Persons.

Vakiti Srihari will look after Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries, Sports and Youth Services.

All the departments allocated to these Ministers were with Chief Minister Revanth Reddy.

The Chief Minister still holds the key portfolios of Home, law and order, municipal administration and urban development, general administration and all other unallocated portfolios.

The portfolios were announced hours after Revanth Reddy returned from Delhi after talks with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and other Central leaders of the party.

Vivek Venkatswamy, Laxman Kumar and Srihari were sworn in as Ministers by Governor Jishnu Dev Varma on June 8.

Vivek Venkatswamy, a former MP and son of former Union Minister G. Venkatswamy, and Government Whip Adluri Laxman are from the Scheduled Castes while Srihari is from the Backward Classes.

This was the first expansion in the Cabinet, which was formed on December 7, 2023, with the swearing-in of the Chief Minister and 11 Ministers.

The long-delayed expansion took place after All India Congress Committee (AICC) cleared the names of the three Ministers.

Though there are vacancies in the Cabinet, the party leadership decided to keep three posts vacant.

The state can have a maximum of 18 Ministers, including the Chief Minister.

The Cabinet expansion left several aspirants in the ruling Congress disappointed.

The Congress leadership intervened to pacify some of the party MLAs who had reportedly threatened drastic action over being ignored.

AICC In-charge Meenakshi Natrajan and Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President Mahesh Kumar Goud pacified MLAs like Sudershan Reddy and Malreddy Ranga Reddy.

–IANS

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