New Andhra Pradesh Cabinet to be sworn in

Ending three days of confusion, ministers of the erstwhile Cabinet of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy will be sworn in afresh on Sunday but it was not clear as to how many will actually take oath of office.
They will be sworn in at a simple ceremony at Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad.

This was decided by Governor ND Tiwari, who after consulting legal experts, felt that they would have to take oath afresh to fulfil a constitutional requirement following swearing-in of new Andhra Pradesh chief minister K Rosaiah on Thursday.

With some of the ministers saying that they were not ready to serve under anyone else other than Rajasekhara Reddy's son Jaganmohan, it is unclear as to how many of the 34 ministers will actually take oath.

Former ministers like P Ramachandra Reddy, J Krishna Rao and Syed Ahmadullah have stated that they were only willing to work as ministers under Jaganmohan.

It may be recalled that there has been a lot of confusion over the status of the ministers who served under Rajasekhara Reddy before his death in a helicopter crash on Wednesday.

Legal experts contended that the ministers were required to take oath of office afresh since a new chief minister had taken over.

Rosaiah himself wrote to the Governor on the issue as he wanted to clear the air. The Governor, in turn, asked state Chief Secretary P Ramakanth Reddy to explain the legal and constitutional position in this regard.

Accordingly, the chief secretary and state advocate general Seetarama Murthy met the Governor late Saturday night and reportedly conveyed to him that the ministers were required to take oath once again.

Official sources said legal and constitutional experts in New Delhi were also consulted.

"Since a controversy has arisen over the status of ministers, the concluding view was that it would be better to administer fresh oath of office to them so as to avoid any constitutional violation," a top-ranking official in the General Administration Department said.

"Accordingly, the ministers of the erstwhile Cabinet will be administered the oath of office once again," he said.