K Rosaiah, 77, the stop-gap chief minister who took over in the aftermath of YS Rajasekhara Reddy's death in September last year, resigned citing personal reasons.
N Kiran Kumar Reddy, the four-time MLA from Chittoor district, has been appointed as the 16th chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. The candidature of Reddy was finalised by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi after the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) authorised her to take a final decision on filling up the vacancy for chief ministership after K Rosaiah resigned on Wednesday.
Reddy, a law graduate, has been the speaker of the Andhra assembly since 2009. He was the government’s chief whip since 2004 during the regime of former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy. Reddy, along with his wife Radhika Reddy, son Nikhilesh Reddy and daughter Niharika Reddy, stays in Hyderabad and tours his constituency Peeleru regularly.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, who was in Hyderabad along with Union
ministers Veerappa Moily, Ghulam Nabi Azad and AK Antony, to find a successor to Rosaiah, formally announced Reddy as the CLP leader. He is expected to be sworn-in as the chief minister on Thursday at 10 am.
Reddy’s appointment might dash Jagan’s hopes once again. Kiran Kumar represents and belongs to Vayalpadu in Rayalaseema region and was close to YSR Reddy. This ensures that the Jagan faction doesn’t oppose him.
N Kiran Kumar Reddy, a Ranji cricket player, is the son of former minister in the state N Amarnath Reddy. He joined politics after his father’s death.
Reddy’s father was close to Indira Gandhi and Reddy himself was close to former prime minister PV Narasimha Rao.
Known as a staunch opponent of TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, who is also from Chittoor district, Reddy is seen as a counter to the demands from various factions from within the Congress party, including those pressing for making YSR’s son Jagan’s candidature for the post.
Though representing Peeleru assembly constituency in Chittoor, Reddy is born and brought up in Hyderabad. He is also believed to be close to several Telangana leaders, which makes him all the more eligible as the new CM.
The 50-year old leader, believed to be aggressively pursuing the agenda set for the government, is a strong politician not willing to come under any pressure from the faction and group politics in the Congress. He is also likely to call for major reshuffling in the cabinet.
Reddy, ironically, was running for a minister’s post after YSR’s re-election in 2009. However, YSR refused him a berth in the cabinet and appointed him as the speaker of the assembly.
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