YSRCP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy has reportedly put off his plans to reshuffle his cabinet until June 2022.

Speculations are rife in YSRCP circles that all the ministers in Jagan’s cabinet requested CM to continue them as ministers for six more months until June 2022 citing “Covid”.

While forming his cabinet in June 2019, CM Jagan announced that he will continue his cabinet ministers only for two-and-a-half-year tenure.

Jagan announced that he will drop all his ministers after two-and-half-years and give chance to new ones in his cabinet to work for the remaining two-and-a-half-year tenure of the YSRCP government.

As per Jagan’s announcement, the term of all the existing cabinet ministers should end in November 2021.

The new cabinet should take over from December 2021.

But YSRSP sources say all the existing ministers requested Jagan to extend their term by six more months until June 2022 because they lost one-and-a-half-year term due to Covid since March 2020.

They could not discharge duties completely due to Covid.

Jagan reportedly agreed and put off his plans to reshuffle his cabinet until June 2022.

Is YSRCP too going the TRS way? TRS boss KCR is very effusive when he welcomes people from other parties into the TRS. After they join the party, they are completely sidelined. No role is given to them and they are never asked for their opinions. It is as if they never existed in the party.

YS Jagan, it appears, too is doing the same. Look at the TDP biggies who joined the YSRCP? Take the case of Panchakarla Ramesh. He was a two-time MLA and was the Vizag rural district president. He left the TDP and joined the YSRCP. But today, he is completely sidelined and forgotten. He is quite inactive in the party. Ramesh is aspiring for Vizag North seat But, Jagan has already promised that seat to KK Raju. Unless he is given an MLC seat, there appears to be no future for him.

Ditto with senior TDP leader Dr SA Rahman. No one even bothers about him. He has not been given any post even in minority quota. He is aspiring for the MLC seat. Sources say that he is planning his future strategies in the event of not being considered for the MLC posts.

The case of Tippala Gurumurthy too is similar. This former MLA too left the TDP to join the YSRCP. He is now planning for the Gajuwaka seat for 2024 elections. However, Jagan is not likely to consider his case as there is already a strong contender there. Former MLA Pasupuleti Balaraju too has expected that his daughter would be given the ZP chief post post. But, that did not happen. Thus, there is a general feeling that Jagan too is following KCR’s footsteps by welcoming the leaders from the other parties and then conveniently forgetting them.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday exhorted police to maintain law and order without any compromise.

At the Police Commemoration Day programme at the Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation Stadium here, he recalled the sacrifices made by police and paid tributes to the martyrs.

The Chief Minister presented financial assistance to the families of police martyrs besides releasing a book on sacrifices made by them.

As many as 377 police personnel across the country have laid down their lives in the line of duty in the last one year, out of which 11 were from the state, he said.

Jagan Mohan Reddy claimed that Andhra Pradesh is the only state to introduce a weekly day-off system for police. However, it could not be implemented effectively due to the pandemic but will now be restored as the Covid cases are declining.

The state government, he said, has cleared the previous government’s pending arrears, increased honorarium to home guards, and recruited 16,000 women police. Massive recruitment will be undertaken to fill vacancies in the department, he added.

The police has sanctioned Rs 5 lakh each to families of police personnel who succumbed to Covid, and the government has sanctioned a matching grant of Rs 5 lakh and immediately handed the Rs 10 lakh cheque to the next of the kin.

Reddy said that he has directed the officials to immediately provide jobs to family members of the deceased police personnel on compassionate grounds by November 30.

Home Minister Mekathoti Sucharitha, Endowments Minister Vellampalli Srinivas, Civil Supplies Minister Kodali Venkateswara Rao, Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma, DGP Gautam Sawang and others were present on the occasion.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday slammed opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) for tarnishing the image of the State by linking it with drugs out of anger for not coming to power.

He said despite the police and even central agencies clarifying that the State has no links with the recent drug haul, the opposition was carrying on Goebbels’ propaganda and branding the state as ‘Drugs Andhra Pradesh’.

He was apparently referring to 3,000 kg heroin seized at Mundra Port in Gujarat last month.

Addressing the Police Commemoration Day event at Vijayawada, the chief minister lashed out at the opposition for what he called playing with the future of the State and its people out of anger over not winning the elections and coming to power.

Reddy alleged that the opposition had conspired to create law and order problems by creating a wedge between castes and communities.

“We are seeing a new trend in crime. Anti-social elements have turned political leaders. Due to their anger over not getting power, they are destroying idols and setting ablaze temple rathams in the darkness,” he said.

He said the opposition leaders were using abusive words against the chief minister so that the chief minister’s admirers would get upset and react, leading to law and order problems.

Reddy’s comments came in the wake of attacks on TDP offices on Tuesday after a TDP spokesperson allegedly used abusive language against him.

The chief minister reiterated that the opposition will not hesitate to instigate communal violence to derive political mileage.

“Since they did not get the power and we are winning every election, they are spreading lies and carrying out Goebbels’ propaganda. They are trying to derail welfare schemes launched by the government. They are creating hurdles by filing court cases. They want to stop the construction of houses for the poor. They don’t want children of the poor to get education through English medium,” he said.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy alleged on Wednesday that the Opposition being “unable to digest the popularity” of his government, is trying to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere in the state.

At the launch of Jagananna Thodu Scheme which is aimed at providing financial assistance to traditional artisans, Reddy lashed out at the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

He alleged that the Opposition would also incite communal violence just to derail the government’s welfare agenda.

Reacting to the attacks on TDP offices on Tuesday, Reddy said, “the Opposition leaders were using offensive language. It was the state-wide reaction of those who admire me and lost cool on hearing abusive language and misinformation being spread on television.”

TDP spokesman Pattabhi Ram Kommareddy hurled abuses at the Chief Minister which triggered a violent reaction from some people who attacked the Opposition’s office in Amaravati and other parts of the state.

DIsmissing the misinformation spread by Kommareddy, the Chief Minister said that his government has never shown any discrimination in implementation of welfare schemes on the grounds of caste, community, region or even party affiliation.

He attributed people’s support and God’s blessings for the victory of the YSR Congress Party and the defeat of the Opposition.

“Unfortunately the Opposition and a section of yellow media like Eenadu, Andhra Jyothi and TV5 are unable to digest the love and affection we receive from people,” he said.

Talking about the satisfaction he gets from serving people of his state, he added, “I would continue to serve the people despite the conspiracies and hurdles created by the Opposition.”

Kin of the Andhra Pradesh government employees who died of Covid-19 will be provided government jobs, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy announced on Monday.

He directed the officials to provide jobs to the kin of deceased employees on compassionate grounds.

During a review meeting, he directed the officials to immediately provide jobs to a family member of the employees who succumbed to Covid and and complete the process by November 30.

Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday conducted a review meeting on Covid-19 situation, vaccination, health hubs, recruitment of staff in health centres and government hospitals across the state.

He wanted officials to ensure that all government hospitals have sufficient staff as per the national standards, without any compromise. He instructed the authorities to focus on the construction of 176 primary health centres. The work on these PHCs will start by January 2022 and be completed within nine months.

The officials informed the Chief Minister that a job calendar has been prepared based on the vacancies identified in various hospitals and they are set to issue job notifications on October 20 and complete the selection process and issue appointment orders on December 10 to those posts notified by Department of Health and Family Welfare.

Similarly, the selection process of all those posts notified under Director of Medical Education will be completed by December 5. In regard to the Andhra Pradesh Vaidya Vidhana Parishad, the notifications will be issued between October 20-23 and the selection process completed by December 25.

The officials informed Jagan Mohan that the state currently has 6,034 active Covid cases. The recovery rate is 99.01 per cent while positivity rate is 1.36 per cent.

They said 91.28 per cent of Covid patients in network hospitals are being treated under Arogyasri and 69.62 per cent are availing treatment in private hospitals under Arogyasri.

Keeping the Covid third wave in view, the officials informed that 27,311 oxygen concentrators and 27,311 D type oxygen cylinders were made available and added that the state government is setting up oxygen generation plants in 140 hospitals, which would be made available by the end of October.

The officials also said that 3,00,38,454 people were so far administered vaccine of which 1,33,80,259 received a single dose while 1,66,58,195 have been administered with two doses. So far, 4,66,96,649 doses of Covid vaccines have been utilised in the state.

Is AP Chief Minister and YSRCP chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy planning to implement the same stratagem in Badevel bypoll that he had successfully implemented in the Tirupati bypoll? It appears so. If sources are to be believed, YS Jagan will not personally campaign in Badvel assembly constituency.

The Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency bypolls were held during the peak of the Covid pandemic. So, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had decided not to personally campaign. He felt that his presence could actually help the spread of the virus. So, he wrote a letter to the voters appealing them to vote for the YSRCP candidate Dr Gurumurthy. The letter was sent to every voter and the party had won handsomely despite his staying away from the campaign.

YSRCP sources claim that though the Covid situation is well under control, he had decided not to campaign personally in Badvel too. He has decided to write personal letters to the voters, which would be distributed by the party workers among the voters of the constituency. The first such letter would be signed by Y Jagan personally at his Tadepalli office Through these letters, YS Jagan will explain the welfare measures being put in place by the government.

Sources said that incharges have been appointed for various mandals and villages and they would be responsible for the distribution of YS Jagan’s letter among the people. YS Jagan has reportedly set a victory target for the party leaders. He reportedly told them that they should get more than 44000 majority in Badvel. It may be recalled that the party MLA Venkata Subbaiah had won by over 44000 votes in 2019. He wants to surpass that majority mark this time.