New Delhi, January 28
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will undertake the long awaited expansion-cum-reshuffle of his Cabinet here tomorrow to fill the gaps in the Council of Ministers and provide proper representation to the states left out thus far.Authoritative sources said the expansion is unlikely to be Congress-specific and expected to have faces from the partners of the UPA like the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal.
In working out the modalities for the Cabinet expansion, Dr Singh held discussions with Congress President Sonia Gandhi who was accompanied by her political secretary Ahmad Patel. Word of an impending Cabinet expansion now being imminent spread after this meeting.
According to a UNI report there
would be no changes in the major portfolios of Defence, Finance and Home.The sources indicated that the Power portfolio would be given to Mr Sushil Kumar Shinde, Ms Ambika Soni Tourism and Culture and Prof Saifuddin Soz, Water Resources.
Dr A.R Antulay, a senior Muslim Congress leader, is likely to get Minority Affairs.
With the Budget session of
Parliament advanced by a week and scheduled to commence on February 16, the Cabinet expansion had assumed an element or urgency to facilitate the new Ministers acclimatise themselves with their charge. At the extended exchange of views lasting nearly four hours, the names of the proposed ministerialists is believed to have been finalised.
The exercise is to fill the vacancies in the Union Council of Ministers and fine tuning the working of various ministries and departments. Several Ministers have been holding additional charge and the Prime Minister is himself saddling a heavy burden.
Even though it was widely felt that the Prime Minister might continue with the high profile External Affairs portfolio since the exit of Mr K Natwar Singh in the wake of the UN's Oil for Food scam in Iraq with several high power visits round the corner including that of US President George Bush, veteran Congressman Karan Singh's name is doing the rounds strongly. Mr Karan Singh is currently heading the Indian Council of Cultural Relations. The surprise is the talk of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed making a comeback as a Union Minister. Mr Sayeed had recently stepped down as Chief Minister of the sensitive border state in keeping with the power sharing arrangement reached between his PDP and the Congress. Former union minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has since moved to J and K as the Chief Minister.
Other probables include Kerala's Vyalar Ravi, Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma, former Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Satish Sharma, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Motilal Vora as well as JMM's Shibu Soren who quit the Union Cabinet in March last year to be Chief Minister of Jharkhand which was short lived. Other names tipped for a ministerial berth are former Orissa Chief Minister Girdhar Gamang and TNCC President G K Vasan, who is the son of late Congress leader G K Moopanar. The two ministerial hopefuls from Maharashtra are Gurudas Kamat and Suresh Kalmadi.
The RJD would also like to fill certain slots in the Union Council of Ministers because one of its ministers -- Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav -- had to make an ignominous exit following a non-bailable warrant issued against him. In this context Ram Kripal Yadav's name is doing the rounds.
Nearly half a dozen vacancies had arisen over a period of time and despite the Prime Minister's efforts to plug the gaps, the Cabinet expansion exercise has remained in limbo because of various controversies. These arose from the resignation of Mr Natwar Singh as External Affairs Minister in the wake of the Paul Volcker report on the Oil for Food scandal in Iraq, the sudden death of Sunil Dutt and P M Sayeed, sending Ghulam Nabi Azad as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and K Rahman Khan being elected as the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
