M A I N   N E W S

No expansion till poll, says PM
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 8
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said today that this was the last expansion of his Council of Ministers till the next Lok Sabha elections.

Replying to newspersons’ questions after the 14th Cabinet expansion in which he re-inducted Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee and MDMK leader Gingee Ramachandran, into the Council of Ministers, Mr Vajpayee said, “It is the last. There will be no more expansion before the elections.”

The Prime Minister, however, was silent when he was asked when the next Parliamentary elections would take place.

To another questions, Mr Vajpayee said efforts were under way to provide reservation to economically-backward classes and favoured it to happen before the upcoming Assembly elections.

“Efforts are on. We want this to happen before the Assembly elections”, he observed.

Asked about the controversy over the report of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) about existence of a 10th century temple below the disputed area in Ayodhya, he said, “The issue is pending before court”.

On whether his government proposed to nominate former Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao in the Rajya Sabha against the one remaining vacancy in this category, he shook his ahead, implying a no.

“Koi aa jaaye bhoola bhatka (anyone can come from here or there),” he quipped, leaving the scribes guessing on who would fill the slot.

Asked why Ms Banerjee had been made a minister without portfolio which would give her elbow to continue her fight for a particular portfolio, Mr Vajpayee said, “Better you ask her.”

Ms Banerjee had met the Prime Minister late last evening where she declined the offer of the coal portfolio.

According to PMO sources, no other portfolio was offered to her.

Ms Banerjee had resigned from the Cabinet just before the Assembly elections in West Bengal two years back, while Mr Ramachandran had to bow out after his secretary was charged with having accepted a bribe.

Asked about the re-induction of Mr Ramachandran, he said the status quo had been restored.

The BJP president, Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu, meanwhile, said the Prime Minister was particular about the size of his Council of Ministers and, therefore, more persons could not be inducted.

He justified the return of Mr Gingee Ramachandran, who had resigned in the wake of the arrest of his Personal Assistant on charges of accepting money for transfer, into the Vajpayee Cabinet.

“At the time Mr Gingee Ramachandran resigned, there was a clear understanding that he would be taken back in the Cabinet if he was not found involved in the case after the completion of the inquiry,” Mr Naidu told newspersons here. On this issue, the Prime Minister said status quo had been restored.

Regarding the ongoing Cancun WTO Ministerial Conference, Mr Vajpayee said, “A good conference was on”.