CM gets coveted chamber

HYDERABAD: Chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy waited for over 15 months in order to allot the chamber number 119 in the D Block of the Secretariat, earlier occupied by YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s powerful advisor K V P Ramachandra Rao, to colleague and former speaker K R Suresh Reddy.
However, with the Congress high command firmly rejecting all the moves of the chief minister to appoint Suresh Reddy as advisor, the chamber was on Tuesday allotted to textiles and handlooms minister D Prasad Kumar.
Several ministers had tried their best to occupy the chamber from where KVP ran his show, but both K Rosaiah and his successor Kiran Kumar Reddy did not oblige them.
These included ministers C Ramachandraiah, Ganta Srinivasa Rao, Kasu Krishna Reddy and P Shankar Rao. In fact, Shanakr Rao had complained that the office allotted to him did not have adequate furniture and that repeated requests to sanction funds for buying the same was rejected by the chief minister.
With the induction of five new ministers into the Kiran cabinet in the last one month, the strength of the council of ministers has gone up to 41. There is a stiff competition among the ministers for the ‘lucky’ chamber.
During the days of Rajasekhara Reddy, the chamber of KVP buzzed with activity as several favour-seekers queued up to see the powerful advisor. Often KVP’s visitors outnumbered those of YSR.