Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan’s brother K. Naga Babu will join the state Cabinet, Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu announced this on Monday.
Naga Babu, elder brother of Pawan Kalyan and younger brother of megastar Chiranjeevi, is also an actor and film producer. As the general secretary of Jana Sena, he had actively campaigned for the party in the recent elections.
As the TDP named two candidates for bye-elections to Rajya Sabha and left one seat for its alliance partner BJP, it decided to accommodate another partner Jana Sena in the state Cabinet.
The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) headed by TDP has 164 MLAs in the 175-member Assembly. The TDP has 135 members while Jana Sena and BJP have 21 and 8 seats respectively.
Naga Babu, also known as Nagendra Babu, will be the fourth minister from Jana Sena. Since Naga Babu is not a member of the Assembly, the coalition is likely to nominate him to the Legislative Council to pave for his induction in the State Cabinet.
Currently, Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan, Nadendla Manohar and Kandula Durgesh are the ministers from Jana Sena in Chandrababu Naidu-led Cabinet.
The State Cabinet can have a maximum of 25 members. Chandrababu Naidu and 23 ministers had taken oath on June 12. The TDP had inducted three ministers from Jana Sena and one from BJP. One vacancy was left for Jana Sena.
The TDP had reportedly offered one Rajya Sabha seat to Jana Sena but Naga Babu was keen to become a minister. After leaving the Rajya Sabha seat for BJP, Chandrababu Naidu decided to include Naga Babu into the Cabinet.
Naga Babu has been working with Pawan Kalyan ever since he floated Jana Sena in 2014.
Both had earlier actively worked for Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) floated by their eldest brother Chiranjeevi in 2008. However, the party came a cropper in 2009 polls and two years later Chiranjeevi had merged it with the Congress party.
