Raja likely to retain portfolio

With the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) behind him in full force and elections to the Tamil Nadu Assembly due in a few months, there is a growing sense in the Congress that removing Union Communication Minister A Raja will be “very difficult”.

A top troubleshooter of the United Progressive Alliance said the Congress would give another try to convince DMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi when he comes to Delhi on Monday. “Given the stand of DMK so far, it looks Raja will stay,” said the Congress leader.

The source pointed out that the proposal to shift Raja out of the telecom ministry to some other portfolio too has met with stiff resistance from DMK. After it was forced to give up the environment & forest, road transport and shipping portfolios to the Congress, DMK is keen to retain the telecom ministry.

Shifting Raja to a different ministry will yield another cabinet berth to DMK. That is something the Congress doesn’t want to see. It may also jeopardise the ministerial “quota” of the various allies.

Although J Jayalalithaa, the ADMK chief and DMK’s arch rival in Tamil Nadu, has offered her support in case the Congress decides to dump Raja along with DMK, the Congress leadership has found little merit in her proposal.

“It is not quite possible to join hands with Jayalalithaa’s party and suddenly dump DMK before the election,” said the source.

The party has also virtually ruled out taking action on the basis of the Comptroller & Auditor General report which said that the government suffered a revenue loss of up to Rs 1.76 lakh crore on the auction of spectrum to telecom service operators.

Last evening, a veteran UPA minister pointed out that at a private dinner in 2000, CAG had slammed the National Democratic Alliance government over its policies to award telecommunication licences. “But no heads rolled. If the Bharatiya Janata Party didn’t take any action on a CAG report during its tenure, how can it expect us to act on another CAG report?” said the minister.

Sources in the Congress have suggested that, ahead of the Tamil Nadu assembly elections (due in early 2011), Raja’s removal will give Jayalalithaa the ammunition she requires to fight the election. Karunanidhi knows this very well and so he is reluctant to take action against Raja. The Congress is also in no mood to change its allies as they find Jayalalithaa “unpredictable”.

The Congress brass, the source claimed, is still keen to show the door to Raja but has not been able to manage Karunanidhi so far. But the party is keen to exert further pressure on DMK. Earlier, in a meeting with Karunanidhi, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi had spoken about Raja’s removal; but soon after, Karunanidhi came out and issued a statement that Raja is being harassed because he is a Dalit.