19-member Cabinet sworn in, more to come next week

Souring the celebrations following the electoral triumph of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) last week, a truncated Cabinet of 19 members was sworn in today amid a tussle between the dominant 206-member Congress and its second-largest ally, the 18-member Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), over portfolio distribution.

Other Cabinet ministers and ministers of state will take the oath of office on Tuesday next week. No portfolios were announced and there is no clarity on when this will be made public.

In 2004, the UPA government had 30 Cabinet ministers.

The names of ministers in this cabinet (see table for full list) were announced following an argument between the Congress and the DMK. The Cabinet has just one representative from Andhra Pradesh, though the party has won 33 MPs. Nor is there anyone from Uttar Pradesh though the party has had a spectacular showing there, winning 22 seats, up from nine in 2004. Kerala has two representatives in the cabinet, both from the Rajya Sabha.

Those expected to be sworn in on Tuesday are Farooq Abdullah (National Conference), Jairam Ramesh and Prithviraj Chavan (both Congress) and a host of young MPs, both from the UPA partners and the Congress.

DMK wants nine berths
The DMK asked for nine ministerial berths including railways, surface transport, power, telecom & IT and health. Apart from DMK chief M Karunanidhi's son M K Azhagiri, the DMK demanded berths for Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi and his grand nephew Dayanidhi Maran as well as for A Raja and T R Baalu, former ministers for telecom and roads and shipping, respectively, in the previous government.

The Congress neither accepted DMK’s nominees for ministerships nor its list of portfolios. “Azhagiri can neither speak English nor Hindi. How can you make him a Cabinet minister?” a top minister said.

The prime minister is also not keen to give shipping and surface transport to the DMK or include Baalu and Raja in the government because of their “unsatisfactory performance” the last time.

Instead, the Congress has offered only three cabinet slots for its Dravidian ally — IT, telecom, chemicals and fertilisers and labour.

The final break came this morning when the DMK announced — in what many described as a face-saving exercise — that the formula for portfolios that the Congress had proposed required clearance by the party’s executive council.

The party chief M Karunanidhi left for Chennai this morning to ask his party what he should do. A senior minister in the government said: “Let them have their meeting with 400 members or 4,000. We don’t care”. (The number refers to the DMK's executive council, which has 400 members).

The Congress formula is a negative list of those who cannot be included and those individuals who cannot be made ministers. Among them are Raja and Baalu.

Top Congress leaders claim Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh will not give in to the DMK. “One or two changes can be made to keep the DMK happy, but accepting their entire wish-list is out of the question,” said a Congress veteran, even as party general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad held further discussions with DMK’s emissary Dayanidhi Maran this morning in Chennai, before flying back to Delhi to take the oath as a Cabinet minister.

Baalu, who announced the party’s decision to extend outside support yesterday, conveyed to some Congress leaders that if the shipping and surface transport were to be reserved for the DMK, there might be some way out of the crisis. However, no such assurance was forthcoming. In the Congress, the mood was to stand up to DMK bullying. "In the Assembly the DMK has 95 MLAs and is surviving on the support of our 35 MLAs. We can call their bluff any time and they will not be able to reach the 117 mark in the 234-member Assembly, " said a Congressman.

Mamata shows 'exemplary restraint'
Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee — in a move slightly out of character — phoned a top Congress leader and told him: “You can take away all my six ministerial berths and give it to DMK if that solves the problem.”

Banerjee was entitled to two cabinet berths and three Ministers of State (MoSs), she has opted for just one cabinet berth and five MoSs.

“Both PM and Sonia Gandhi are very happy with Banerjee’s role. She has shown exemplary restraint and sagacity while negotiating the portfolios,” said a top Congress leader.

Congress managers pointed out that it took barely two minutes to finalise the berth-sharing deal with Banerjee. “She even asked for Pranab Mukherjee and Sonia Gandhi’s suggestion on whom she should make minister from her own party,” a top source said.

By the evening the other estranged ally, the National Conference (NC) had also been won over. The Congress and National Conference have worked out a formula to address the wrath of Ladakhis. Tensions between the two grew after the Congress nominee from Ladakh, P Namgyal, lost to Ghulam Hassan Khan, a proxy candidate of the NC led by Farooq Abdullah, in the recent election.

Under the terms of today's agreement Abdullah will be inducted into the Manmohan Singh cabinet in the next cabinet expansion, and in return, the NC would support P Namgyal for the Rajya Sabha seat that will fall vacant after Abdullah’s resignation and subsequent election to the Lok Sabha.