Hyderabad, Jan 18 (IANS) The Andhra Pradesh cabinet will be expanded Thursday with the induction of two legislators of the erstwhile Praja Rajyam Party (PRP), which has merged with the ruling Congress.

C. Ramchandraiah and Ganta Srinivasa Rao will be sworn in as the new ministers by Governor E.S. L. Narasimhan at Raj Bhavan at 11.43 a.m, sources in Raj Bhavan said.

The Congress has also decided to drop controversial minister P. Shankar Rao from the cabinet.

The decision was taken by the Congress after Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy met party president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi. Party general secretary and state in charge Ghulam Nabi Azad and Gandhi’s political advisor Ahmed Patel also attended the meeting.

Though two vacancies were caused by the resignations of two ministers over the Telangana issue, the Congress has decided not go induct anybody from the region. Party sources said that a full-fledged expansion or reshuffle will take place only after a decision on separate Telangana state.

The chief minister complained to the leadership against Shankar Rao, who has been openly criticising the chief minister and also leveling allegations of corruption against his cabinet colleagues.

After keeping PRP in waiting for several months, the Congress has finally decided to induct its two legislators in the cabinet.

Actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi had merged his PRP with the Congress in August last year. PRP has 18 members in 294-member state assembly.

Ramahandraiah, however, is a member of legislative council. Both Ramchandraiah and Srinivasa Rao had quit Telugu Desam Party to join PRP before the 2009 assembly elections.