High suspense in Congress after Uttam Kumar Reddy urgently summoned to Delhi

The Irrigation Minister, along with his wife and Kodad MLA N Padmavathi Reddy, has already left for the national capital, triggering speculations

Hyderabad: In a sudden development that has set rumour mills working overtime inside and outside Gandhi Bhavan, Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy was summoned  to New Delhi by the AICC even as Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy was holding meetings with the high command since Monday.

The Irrigation Minister, along with his wife and Kodad MLA N Padmavathi Reddy, has already left for the national capital, triggering speculations. Suspense is high since the Chief Minister has been in New Delhi since Monday to discuss allotment of portfolios to the newly inducted three Ministers. With the Irrigation Minister being summoned to the national capital, discussions are gathering steam over a possible reshuffling of portfolios apart from allotment of departments to the three new Ministers.

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The Chief Minister had met AICC general secretary KC Venugopal on Monday night. This was followed by another meeting with AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi at Indira Bhavan, which lasted for over an hour. Amidst these meetings, the high command instructing the Irrigation Minister to reach New Delhi has left many guessing. In fact, Uttam Kumar Reddy was slated to fly to the national capital on Wednesday to meet a few officials and Union Ministers to discuss pending official issues, a senior party leader said.

“There is no clarity over the high command’s sudden orders to the Irrigation Minister,” the leader said.

The cabinet expansion had triggered dissent among aspirants who were expecting a berth. While Ibrahimpatnam MLA Malreddy Rangareddy insisted that one MLA should be appointed as Minister from erstwhile Rangareddy district and stuck to his earlier vow of quitting as MLA if the party failed to consider his plea, supporters of Bodhan MLA Sudarshan Reddy have issued an ultimatum to the party that their leader should be inducted into the cabinet before the local body elections. With the three vacancies still remaining in the cabinet, speculation is also rife over whether the disgruntled MLAs might be pacified with berths to avoid further mutiny within the party.