Manmohan gives work to six ministers

Pranab, Pawar, Chidambaram, Antony hold on to portfolio; Krishna gets foreign affairs, Mamata Rlys.

Twelve hours after they were administered the oath of office by President Pratibha Patil, six cabinet ministers were today given portfolios. Pranab Mukherjee was allotted Finance, Sharad Pawar was given Agriculture, Food & Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, AK Antony Defence, P Chidambaram Home, Mamata Banerjee Railways and SM Krishna External Affairs.

The first list includes portfolios that were non-negotiable and represents the A list of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The first meeting of the new Cabinet took place today and resolved that the new Lok Sabha would meet on June 1 for a short session. The brief meeting of Cabinet also decided that the Budget session would start in the first week of July.

More than that, it was the portfolio allocation that became the talk of the town. So far, there has been no restructuring of any portfolio, although there was speculation that Agriculture would be decoupled from Food, Civil Supplies and Public Distribution as experience has shown the two departments need to be administered separately. The announcement also negated the general sense that no minister from an allied party would be given dual portfolios. Pawar from the Nationalist Congress Party has become the first minister to get dual charge.

There were muted complaints from the Maharashtra unit of the Congress which noted that Pawar, with just nine MPs, was one of the first to be sworn in, even before Banerjee with 19, and well before senior Congress Ministers like Antony and Chidambaram. Congressmen from Maharashtra said this will upset the balance of power within the ruling Congress-NCP coalition in the state. This, some Congressmen feared, is likely to embolden other allies to demand similar treatment.

Some of those on the A list are cast in the mould of Prime Minister Singh himself. Krishna is an urbane sophisticated politician, a citizen of the world, having been educated in the US in his early career. As the chief minister of Karnataka, he took special efforts to develop Bangalore and its surrounding infrastructure, earning the approval of Bangalore-based businesses. He got a briefing from the Foreign Secretary hours after his portfolio was announced and also met reporters.

Although she hasn’t said so yet, making an example out of NCP, Banerjee is likely to claim more ministries for her party, the Trinamool Congress.