The proposed revamp of the Andhra Pradesh cabinet by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy was not an unexpected development in the YSRC as he had openly declared, at the time of formation of the first cabinet itself in June 2019, that he would change 90 per cent of the ministers after two and a half years.
Yet, analysts say Jagan’s decision to revamp the cabinet on Monday is a calculated political risk. There would not have been any discussion had he taken up reshuffle like any other chief minister – dropping a few ministers and replacing them with new faces.
But dissolving the entire cabinet and taking the resignations of all the 24 ministers, including those who are very senior to Jagan in the state politics, is believed to be a risky proposition, an analyst said.
The decision to force all the minister to resign reminds one of a similar decision taken by Telugu Desam Party founder-president and former chief minister N T Rama Rao in 1988.
Like Jagan has done now, NTR, too, had taken a sudden decision of dissolving the entire cabinet of 33 ministers at one go.
He sacked political heavy weights like K Jana Reddy and K E Krishnamurthy and replaced them with new faces like A Madhava Reddy.
It was a risky decision and NTR had to pay a penalty for the same in the next elections, as many of them revolted against him and NTR lost power.
Of course, there was another similar precedent.
In 1982, too, former Congress chief minister T Anjaiah, who had formed jumbo cabinet with over 60 ministers, had to sack all of them. Of course, it was not his decision as he had to take the orders from the high command. But it had a heavy impact on the Congress, which lost the elections to the TDP a few months later.
Analysts say Jagan’s move now might also be as risky as that of NTR and Anjaiah, as there are reports that senior are grumbling for being sacked with one stroke. If Jagan takes at least some of the seniors back into the cabinet, he might not face such a situation.
At the same time, Jagan also promised prominent posts of cabinet rank to these sacked ministers. At the same time, he was courteous enough to apologise to them for removing them from the cabinet and appreciating their services for the last three years.
Only time will decide whether Jagan’s decision is risky or whether he enjoys complete hold over the party, even if the seniors resort to non-cooperation.