Pawan Kalyan Deputy CM, Nara Lokesh IT minister in Andhra Pradesh government as Chandrababu Naidu allots portfolios

Janasena chief Pawan Kalyan was named the Deputy Chief Minister in a highly-anticipated move by the Andhra Pradesh government on Friday. The actor-turned-politician has also been allocated the Panchayat Raj and Rural Development, Environment, Forests, and Science and Technology portfolios in the Chandrababu Naidu-led government.

Naidu's son Nara Lokesh (41) was given the Human Resources Development, Information Technology and Communication portfolios, TDP sources told PTI.  Lokesh, a Stanford MBA graduate and former World Bank official  is a former minister who won the Mangalagiri seat with a margin of 91,413 votes.

"Congratulations to Pawan Kalyan on becoming the Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. I congratulate all my colleagues in the cabinet on being assigned their portfolios," said Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in a post on X.

Anitha Vangalapudi will be the Home Minister. Naidu will retain the Law and Order portfolio. 

Along with Naidu, as many as 24 ministers were sworn in on Wednesday. Out of 24 ministers who took the oath of office, 17 are first-timers, three are women, eight are from backward class (BC) communities, one a Muslim, two from Scheduled Castes (SC) and one from Scheduled Tribes among others.

Besides Naidu, 20 ministers belonging to the TDP, three from Janasena and one from BJP took oath.

P Narayana was allotted one of the key departments- Municipal Administration- which would be responsible for the development of the Amaravati capital region. The foundation stone for the Amaravati project was laid in 2015 but it never took final shape due to a shift in political power as the YSRCP formed the state government after the 2019 assembly elections.

In the recent Andhra Pradesh assembly elections, the TDP-Janasena-BJP alliance swept to power winning, 164 of the 175 seats on offer. Kalyan's party won 21 seats in the election as well as two in the Lok Sabha polls held concurrently, giving it a 100 per cent strike rate.  The alliance won 21 out of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh.

Earlier on Friday Pawan Kalyan’s X handle had shared a post that referred to him as the deputy chief minister.