Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu announced that he would take Jana Sena general secretary K Nagendra Babu into the state cabinet. There are 24 ministers in the state cabinet besides the chief minister. There is one vacancy in the cabinet.
Chandrababu Naidu said that the alliance had decided to take Nagendrababu into the cabinet. However, he did not fix the time frame for this. He is not an MLA or MLC. The alliance should make him the MLC before or six months after he is taken into the cabinet.
Chandrababu Naidu did not revel his plans on taking Nagendrababu into the cabinet. It is not known whether he would take him into the cabinet now and make him the MLC or he would make him an MLC first and take him into the cabinet.
Nagendrababu is the brother of Jana Sena chief and Deputy Chief Minister K Pawan Kalyan. Initially it was thought that Nagendrababu would be sent to Rajya Sabha in the three vacancies caused by the resignation of Beeda Mastan Rao, R Krishnaiah and Mopidevi Venkata Ramana, who all belong to the YSR Congress.
Beeda Mastan Rao and Mopidevi Venkata Ramana have joined the ruling TDP, while Krishnaiah joined the BJP. The BJP leadership had renominated Krishnaiah for the vacancy, while the TDP had nominated Mastan Rao and Sana Satish for the remaining two vacancies.
A strong BC leader in the two Telugu states, Krishnaiah had been active in politics for over four decades. He has strong following in the two Telugu states. He was the TDP chief minister candidate for Telangana in 2014. As the TDP did not win those elections he remained an MLA.
In 2022, Krishnaiah joined the YSR Congress. It was then Jagan Mohan Reddy had sent him to Rajya Sabha. After the 2024 general elections with the defeat of the YSR Congress, he switched loyalities and quit the Rajya Sabha seat. However, it is not known what made him to join the BJP, though he is very close to Chandrababu Naidu.
It is also not known what happened to the candidature of Mopidevi Venkata Ramana, who joined the TDP. It was initially thought that Mopidevi and Mastan Rao would be sent back to the Rajya Sabha to complete their term. However, Chandrababu Naidu dropped Mopidevi and is sending Mastan Rao only. Instead of Mopidevi, Naidu had picked up Sana Satish for the vacancy. It is to be seen what was the arrangement made to satisfy Mopidevi to stay back.
