Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday sacked Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Health Dr K. Rajaiah who faced criticism for inept handling of swine flu endemic and alleged corruption in his department.
KCR replaced Rajaiah with another Dalit leader and member of Lok Sabha, Kadiam Srihari, who was sworn in as new deputy chief minister by Governor ESL Narasimha at a simple but hurriedly organised ceremony Sunday at Raj Bhavan.
Like Rajaiah, Srihari also hails from Warangal district. Srihari, a senior politician who was earlier with Telugu Desam Party joined the Telangana Rashtra Samiti last year and successfully fought Lok Sabha polls.
Srihari said later told media: “I will work as a soldier and make my contribution for the development of the state.”
He said the decision to induct him in the state cabinet came as a surprise to him. Several ministers including K. Taraka Rama Rao, T. Harish Rao, Talasani Srinivas Yadav, Pocharam Srinivas and A. Indirakiran Reddy and senior leader K. Keshav Rao attended the swearing-in ceremony.
Srihari said he will resign from Lok Sabha soon and become a member of the Legislative Council.
Apart from bringing in a senior and experienced member in his team, KCR also changed the portfolio of some of his ministers. While Srihari will be the new deputy chief minister and education minister, Jagdiswhar Reddy will hold the power portfolio instead of education. Lakshma Reddy will be the new health minister.
Rajaiah’s sacking came a day after he wrote a letter to the chief minister seeking his forgiveness for mistakes and promising that he will not allow such mistakes in future. Mistakes were result of inexperience, he pleaded in the letter while denying his involvement in corruption.
Earlier the state government had removed the officer on special duty and some other officials in Rajaiah’s office following allegations that they had committed irregularities in recruitment of nurses and purchase of equipment for health department.
Speculations were rife about the departure of Rajaiah from the state cabinet ever since KCR openly displayed his dismay and anger with the minister over the worsening swine flu situation as well as the alleged corruption.
Many other ministers also told Rajaiah that KCR was furious as he was determined to get rid of corruption in the government and does not want to tolerate any misdemeanours that could harm the image of his government.
Earlier in the day KCR met senior minister and key leaders of his party before taking the decision to remove Rajaiah from cabinet. Srihari had to be brought in as he belongs to the same Madiga sub caste of Dalits to which Rajaiah belonged. KCR had to take the extra care in finding replacement as removing a Madiga leader from the cabinet would have sent a wrong signal.
