Andhra Pradesh Tribal Welfare Minister Kidari Sravan Kumar may have to give up his post in the state cabinet on May 10 as he wasn’t elected or nominated to the Legislature within 6 months days of being sworn in. According to Article 164(4) in the Constitution of India, "A Minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of the Legislature of the State shall at the expiration of that period cease to be a Minister."
On November 11, 2018, 29-year old Sravan was sworn in as a minister. He has contested the current Assembly polls as a candidate from Araku on a TDP ticket, which was earlier represented by his father Kidari Sarveswara Rao. Sarveswara Rao and ex-MLA Siveri Soma were shot dead by Maoists in Livitiputtu in September last year.
After the death of Sarveswara Rao, the Election Commission did not notify fresh elections as the Assembly polls in the state was only a few months away. Sravan took oath as a Minister and his six-month deadline ends on May 10, but the results would be declared only on May 23.
According to media reports, officials in the Raj Bhavan were also not reminded by the General Administration Department (Election) about this anomaly, but the issue has now been brought to the notice of Governor E S L Narasimhan, who sent a communication to the state government on Tuesday evening.
As far as the killings of the two politicians were concerned, four months after the Andhra Pradesh state police began their investigation, the NIA took over the case suo moto in December 2018. The Andhra police had initially released the names and pictures of three Maoists, including two women, who took part in the attack. Based on the information gathered from witnesses, the police earlier said that the main accused in the killing was Aruna alias Venkataravi Chaitanya, a Special Zonal Committee Member (SZCM) of the CPI (Maoist). Aruna, who heads Nandapur Area Committee on Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB), is suspected to have led a group of 50-60 Maoists who allegedly crossed over to Andhra Pradesh from Odisha.