Legislative Council Chairman Calls for Cabinet Reshuffle, Targets Welfare Benefits

HYDERABAD: Calling for a visible change in the functioning of the government, Legislative Council Chairman Gutha Sukender Reddy said on Saturday that the matter concerning Endowments Minister Konda Surekha should be addressed as “allowing it to fester would not help the government”. He said there could be two options — either drop Surekha from the Cabinet or reshuffle the Cabinet. There was also a broader message in Sukender Reddy’s remarks. Much more needed to be done for the people, he said, stressing that welfare benefits should reach genuine beneficiaries. In an informal interaction with the media at his chamber in the Council, he suggested that the distribution of freebies be reduced and welfare support be better targeted at those who were genuinely eligible. With the government approaching three years in office, Sukender Reddy felt the time was right for a Cabinet reshuffle. Such a move, he said, could bring “new energy” into the government while also helping address dissatisfaction among leaders. The other challenge, he said, was within the Congress itself, where groupism and internal differences needed to be contained. Party discipline was important, he said, and leaders had to work together and fight collectively. In politics, as the saying goes, too many cooks can make the broth harder to manage. The reference to senior Congress leader G Chinna Reddy brought the party’s internal equations into sharper focus. Sukender Reddy said the party had given him a good opportunity but felt that making critical remarks about the party was not appropriate. There were “so many windows” in the Congress, he said, making it difficult to know which window each leader was operating from — an apparent reference to the different groups within the party.