The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Tuesday, September 9, 2003, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

M A I N N E W S

Mamata returns sans portfolio
Ramachandran gets Textiles
Tribune News Service

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee meets former President K.R. Narayanan at the swearing-in ceremony of the Union Cabinet at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Monday. — Tribune photo by Mukesh Aggarwal

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee with Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani at the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Monday. — PTI photo

New Delhi, September 8
Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee today staged a comeback into the Union Cabinet as a minister without portfolio after a gap of 30 months along with MDMK representative Gingee N. Ramachandran, who quit the government in May following the arrest of his Personal Assistant in a cash-for-transfer scam.

Describing it as the “last expansion”, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee reshuffled the portfolios of some Ministers of State. Mr Bandaru Dattatreya has been given independent charge of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation.

Sources in the PMO said Ms Banerjee, who was offered the Coal portfolio when she met the Prime Minister last night, declined the offer and preferred to be a minister without portfolio.

Mr Vajpayee also did not bring back 59-year-old Ramachandran into the Finance Ministry which he had to quit, but gave him the Textiles Ministry. He had served in Textiles when he joined the government in 1999. His party, the MDMK, had insisted that he should be reinducted into the government.

With today’s expansion, the strength of the Union Council of Ministers goes up to 81. Of them, 31 are of Cabinet rank, eight hold independent charge in the rank of MoS and the rest 42 are Ministers of State.

In the reshuffle of the Ministers of State, Mr Dattatreya’s place in the Railway Ministry has been taken by Mr Basavagouda R. Patil, who moves from Textiles.

Mr Yaso Naik, who was MoS in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, now gets Finance, while Mr P. Radhakrishnan moves from Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation to Road Transport and Highways.

Mr Santosh Gangwar, who was MoS in the Labour Ministry, shifts to Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, continuing to hold additional charge of Parliamentary Affairs.

The new ministers were administered the oath of office and secrecy by President A. P. J . Abdul Kalam at a simple ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Mamata to get portfolio in due course
T.R. Ramachandran

New Delhi, September 8
The return of Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee to the NDA government after two years is not without its pitfalls and tightrope walking by both sides.

Despite the outward bravado that she is happy being a minister without a portfolio, She is pursuing a ministry of her choice. She has refused the Ministry of Coal.

When Ms Banerjee called on Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee here yesterday, she was offered the Coal portfolio as no other ministry or department was available, according to sources in the Prime Minister’s Office. She declined and told Mr Vajpayee that she had no objection to being a member of his Cabinet without a portfolio. Mr Vajpayee did not find any objection with that proposition.

She is aware that her first choice of Railways is ruled out and had, therefore, pitched for Surface Transport or Urban Development. Her objective was to return to the Union Government and work things out by and by.

Mr Vajpayee is looking at next year’s general election and the BJP’s need to work out arrangements in West Bengal which has 42 seats to the Lok Sabha. Ms Banerjee has reaffirmed her desire to have a truck with the BJP now that the dalliance of the Trinamool Congress with the Congress had soured.

Sources said Ms Banerjee would be handed a portfolio in due course. A vacancy was likely to arise with Mr Bandaru Dattatreya being despatched to Andhra Pradesh to head the BJP in the next few months. He is presently the the Minister of State holding an independent charge of Urban Development.

In a bid to keep matters on an even keel in her party, she had decided not to nominate any other member of the Trinamool Congress for being a member of Mr Vajpayee’s Council of Ministers.

Regional MDMK’s Gingee Ramachandran makes a comeback to the Vajpayee government after the involvement of one of his former staff members in the controversial money for transfer scam. Despite the MDMK members boycotting the swearing in ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan this afternoon, Mr Ramachandran has been given textiles as Minister of State.