New Delhi, May 25
The impasse between the Congress and the DMK on the allocation of portfolios has been resolved with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh removing any misgivings with promptitude and assigning the promised portfolios to the Dravidian party’s ministers.
This ended the drama of the last two days and paved way for the DMK ministers to take charge tomorrow. DMK supremo M Karunanidhi had adopted a tough stand and directed his MPs not to assume office till the agreement on the portfolios was implemented.
Consequently, the shipping portfolio was given to T R Baalu along with Road Transport and Highways.
This was facilitated in great measure by Telengana Rashtra Samiti leader K Chandra Shekhar Rao calling on Dr Manmohan Singh here today and offering to give up the shipping ministry in the larger interest of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government remaining united.
Mr Rao said he had was not thirsting for power and had no objection to being a minister without portfolio as his primary concern was the creation of a Telengana state, a pledge given by the TRS to the people of the region in Andhra Pradesh. He expressed happiness that Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi had given him the requisite assurances in this regard.
Describing Mr Rao as a ‘yogi’, the Prime Minister promptly made him minister without portfolio thereby providing himself with that much space for manoeuvering in making adjustments in case of any exigency. Both Mr Baalu and Mr Rao hold Cabinet rank.
In a communique this evening, the Rashtrapati Bhavan listed the changes in the portfolios of Dr
Manmohan Singh’s council of ministers as advised by the Prime Minister.
Dr Manmohan Singh also effected other changes in keeping with the agreement reached with the DMK as well that of RJD’s Minister of State Taslimuddin as it clashed with Congress leader Santosh Mohan Dev’s allocation of Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises.
DMK’s Minister of State S S Palanimanikkam has been made Junior Minister in Finance Ministry, headed by P Chidamabaram instead of commerce and industry as announced in the first instance. He is expected to deal with the Revenue Department.
Another Minister of State and former Tamil Nadu Congress committee chief E V K Elangovan has been moved to Commerce and Industry under the overall command of Kamal Nath instead of Petroleum and Natural Gas. As a Minister of State with independent charge, Mr Dev brought the anomaly in his case to the notice of Dr Manmohan Singh and Mrs Gandhi necessitating the course correction.
Mr Taslimuddin, who is already in the eye of a storm because of nine registered criminal cases pending against him, has now been shifted to Agriculture, Food and Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution. The political head of all these ministries is NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
The RJD MP has the dubious distinction of having been appointed as Minister of State in the United Front Government but had to make his exit within a week because of the cases against him. Anticipating that he might again meet with a similar fate, Mr Taslimuddin had sought to take the fight to the opposition camp, especially the BJP.
DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran met Dr Manmohan Singh immediately after Mr Rao had offered to give up the shipping portfolio. He acknowledged that whatever portfolios had been committed to the DMK had been honoured.
Mr Maran denied that the DMK had specially sought the Revenue Department as a means of settling scores with the AIADMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. “Nothing of that sort,” he insisted.
