Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's entire cabinet resigned today in a precursor to a mega overhaul a little over halfway through his term, ahead of the 2024 state election.
Twenty-four ministers handed in their resignations after a cabinet meeting, in the first step towards the big do-over.
Jagan Reddy, the only cabinet member to stay put, received the resignations.
The makeover was widely anticipated as Jagan Reddy had said he would go in for an entirely new team halfway through his term. The revamp was scheduled in December but had to be put off due to Covid.
Only one or two ministers from the outgoing team are likely to be retained, sources say. These ministers are not being axed as they are the only members belonging to politically vital communities that need to be represented.
The new cabinet is likely to have representation from each of the newly-formed 26 districts of the state. Caste, region, religion, and gender will be factored in, as in June 2019, when Jagan Reddy took over as Chief Minister.
Mr Reddy had five Deputy Chief Ministers, one each from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes, Kapu caste and the Muslim minority community. There were three women in the cabinet. The Home Minister was M Sucharita, a woman from the Dalit community. This structure is likely to be repeated.
The outgoing ministers are likely to be given party roles; sources say given their record as ministers and their rapport with the public, they would be useful for coordination.
This is the second time in the history of Andhra Pradesh that an entire cabinet is resigning mid-way.
In 2019, soon after his massive victory in the Andhra Pradesh election, Mr Reddy had said he would pick a new team mid-term as part of his strategy for 2024. The idea was to give everyone a chance and also beat any anti-incumbency against any MLA who has served as minister.
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