Hyderabad: G. Kishan Reddy, the minister of state of home is the lone face from Telugu states in the newly formed cabinet of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

While Kishan Reddy represents Secunderabad constituency in Telangana, Modi has not inducted anybody from Andhra Pradesh as the BJP drew a blank there in the recent Lok Sabha elections.

Kishan Reddy’s selection by Modi was on the expected lines as he came up through the ranks through hard work over the last four and a half decades. He started at a very young age when he joined the then ruling Janata Party as an ordinary worker in 1977. Later after the formation of BJP in 1980 he became active in its youth wing Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. Recognised for his hard work under the tutelage of senior party leader M. Venkaiah Naidu, Kishan Reddy was given several responsibilities. Apart from being the national president of the youth wing of the party, he also served the state unit president of BJP in undivided Andhra Pradesh and party’s floor leader in the state assembly.

Hailing from Ranga Reddy district adjoining Hyderabad, Kishan Reddy made his debut in the state assembly in 2004 when he was elected from Himayatnagar assembly constituency and later he moved to Amberpet from where he was elected twice in 2009 and 2014 but was defeated in November 2018 polls by the ruling TRS.

However the party preferred him over senior leader and sitting MP Bandaru Dattatreya to be the party candidate from Secunderabad.

BJP sprang a surprise by winning four Lok Sabha seats but Kishan Reddy was the natural choice for the cabinet as he was the senior most among all the four MPs. By making him the minister of state for Home under the second most powerful figure in the government Amit Shah, Modi has indicated that he expects Kishan Reddy to play a major role in further expanding and consolidating the party in Telangana and other parts of southern India.

“On this joyous occasion I would like to share that BJP is the only party where an ordinary karyakarta (worker) is recognised, that too solely on hard work and merit”, Kishan Reddy said.