Singh opts for 'continuity'

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided that the organising principle in the formation of the council of ministers should be “continuity”, said senior Congress party leaders.

Accordingly, Home Minister P Chidambaram will stay on in North Block and A K Antony will continue in the defence ministry.

Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee would not be averse to the finance ministry if it is offered, but is likely to retain the external affairs portfolio of the two he is holding at the moment.

The finance ministry is deemed to be vacant after P Chidambaram was shifted to home following the Mumbai terror attacks in November last year, which saw the incumbent Shivraj Patil being pressured to step down.

Although the prime minister and Pranab Mukherjee have been handling finance since December — Mukherjee presented the Interim Budget on February 16 this year — sources said the search for a finance minister was still on. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, currently deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, still leads the pack, though the question of finding him a Rajya Sabha seat remains. Ministers must become members of Parliament within six months of their appointment under Article 75 (5) of the Constitution.

The Congress leadership has also decided that all MPs from the previous Lok Sabha who were ministers and have retained their seats will be re-nominated ministers. These are: Pranab Mukherjee, Sushilkumar Shinde, Jaipal Reddy, Sis Ram Ola, P Chidambaram, Kamal Nath, Meira Kumar and Kapil Sibal.

Meanwhile, there are seven ministers who are no longer in the Lok Sabha, having lost the elections or not contested them. These are: A R Antulay (minority affairs); Mahabir Prasad (micro, small and medium enterprises); P R Kyndiah (tribal affairs); S S Vaghela (textiles); Sontosh Mohan Dev (heavy industries and public enterprises); Priya ranjan Dasmunsi (originally information & broadcasting but now holds no portfolio owing to a prolonged, critical illness) and Manishankar Aiyar (panchayati raj and north eastern affairs).

These seven ministers are likely to replaced by Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jairam Ramesh, Salman Khurshid, Mukul Wasnik and Prithviraj Chavan, among others. Ministers from the Rajya Sabha except Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh, who has been excused from government, will retain their cabinet berths. These are: A K Antony (defence), Vayalar Ravi (parliamentary affairs), H R Bharadwaj (law), Saifuddin Soz (water resources), Murli Deora (petroleum) and Ambika Soni (culture and tourism).

There is, however, no clarity on which portfolio will be held by which minister, because the prime minister is said to be of the view that there should be a churn and fresh talent should be offered new challenges. Young MPs, especially those who have been elected, will be priority recruitment though it is unlikely that they will be offered cabinet berths.

Senior Congress Party sources recalled that in 2004, Veerappa Moily’s name was in circulation for the post of both finance minister and deputy chairman of the Planning Commission.

Overall, Manmohan Singh has reportedly resolved to start his second innings with only a few ministers from those parties with which the Congress had a pre-poll alliance. These are: Nationalist Congress Party(NCP), Trinamool Congress and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). Although theoretically, National Conference is a pre-poll alliance partner, the Congress is unlikely to give it a cabinet berth.

In the United Progressive Alliance government which came to power in 2004, seven cabinet berths were given to allies. Of these, three went to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), two to DMK and one each to NCP and the Lok Janashakti Party (LJP).

LJP has lost the election and the RJD, down from 24 seats in 2004 to 4 seats this time, is not being considered a pre-poll ally at all because of its leaders Lalu Prasad’s attempts to distance the party from the Congress in the run-up. So these four berths — Railways held by Lalu Prasad himself, corporate affairs by PC Gupta, rural development by Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, and chemicals, fertilisers and steel held by Ramvilas Paswan — will be shared between Trinamool Congress and DMK. The Congress might even reserve a couple for itself.

A decision is still to be taken on the issue of inviting Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party (SP) to join the government. SP General Secretary Amar Singh met Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee for an hour-long meeting, SP sources said. He lobbied hard for two berths — any two berths, reportedly — for his party. This request unlikely to be accepted because of the bad blood between SP and Congress during the election campaign when they set up candidates against each other in UP.

Although the entire party is ranged against the RJD owing to Prasad’s pre-poll behaviour, it is Congress President Sonia Gandhi who will take a final call on this.

Lalu Prasad attended the Cabinet meeting this morning at which the prime minister congratulated all his ministers for a fine government they had run for five years. When his turn came to speak, Lalu Prasad said: “It was a pleasure working with you. But what I don’t like is the way ministers are addressing TV cameras about whether we will be included in the government or not. You can decide whatever you like. But I don’t think you should be saying this in public and humiliating me.”

A meeting of the UPA is scheduled tomorrow. Ministers who attend could do some plain speaking on the functioning of the Congress.