south

Updated: Sep 08, 2019 09:31 IST

Telangana chief minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao will take up the much-awaited expansion of his council of ministers Sunday evening.

According to an official release from the chief minister’s office late Saturday, KCR chose to expand his cabinet on Dasami, an auspicious muhurtam as per Telugu almanac.

KCR is likely to bring back his son KT Rama Rao and nephew T Harish Rao, who were ministers in his first stint between 2014 and 2018. Both KTR and Harish Rao were left out in the first two phases of cabinet formation in the current term. KTR was appointed as TRS working president, soon after the party returned to power for the second successive time in December.

The new ministers will take oath of office and secrecy at 4 pm at the Raj Bhavan, a few hours after Tamilisai Soundararajan swears in as the Governor of Telangana. The chief minister hosted farewell to outgoing Governor ESL Narasimhan at his camp office Pragathi Bhavan on Saturday.

KCR had instructed chief secretary SK Joshi to make arrangements for the swearing-in ceremony at Raj Bhavan. The chief minister also informed the Governor-designate about the cabinet expansion.

The exact number of ministers to be inducted is not yet known.

KCR took oath as the chief minister of Telangana for the second successive term on December 13, 2018, along with state home minister Mohammad Mahmud Ali. On February 19 this year, i.e. 67 days after forming the government, the CM had inducted 10 more ministers in the cabinet. He can still accommodate six more ministers in the cabinet.

On Saturday, KCR announced appointment of chief whip and whips of the party in the state assembly, the monsoon session of which will begin on Monday.

While Warangal MLA Dasyam Vinaya Bhaskar was appointed as the chief whip, other MLAs Gongadi Sunitha, Gampa Goverdhan, Guvvala Balraju, Arekapudi Gandhi, Rega Kantha Rao and Balka Suman were appointed as whips.

In Legislative council, B Venkateshwarlu was appointed as the chief whip and K Damodhar Reddy, MS Prabhakar Rao, T Bhanu Prasad Rao and Karne Prabhakar would act as whips.