BJP's lone parliamentarian from Andhra Pradesh, Suresh Prabhu, was omitted in PM Narendra Modi's new council of ministers sworn-in on Thursday (May 30)
Amaravati: With none from Andhra Pradesh included in the new union council of ministers led by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the state does not have a representative in the central government perhaps for the first time.
The sole representative of the state in the Modi-led NDA-I, Suresh Prabhu, has been omitted in the new council of ministers sworn-in on Thursday (May 30).
Prabhu is the lone parliamentarian of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Andhra Pradesh.
However, the BJP did not win any of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the recent general elections.
In 2014, the then ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was an ally of the BJP, and two of its MPs (P Ashok Gajapathi Raju and YS Chowdary) found a place in the Modi government.
They too had resigned in March 2018, after the TDP snapped ties with the BJP over the demand for Special Category Status (SCS) for Andhra Pradesh.
Since then, Prabhu, elected to Rajya Sabha from the state in 2016, was the lone Union minister from Andhra Pradesh.
In the 17th Lok Sabha elections, YS Jaganmohan Reddy-led YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) won 22 seats while the other three seats were bagged by N Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP.
On May 30, Jaganmohan Reddy was sworn-in as the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), DMK president MK Stalin were present at the swearing-in ceremony which took place in Vijayawada's Indira Gandhi Municipal Stadium.
Last Updated May 31, 2019, 8:30 AM IST