A major government and party rejig in the works after TMC quits

However, no one knows when it will happen

With the exit of Trinamool Congress from the government, the Congress party is holding a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), an assembly of (largely) elected partymen to debate the exit of the ally and the reasons that led to it. The CWC, at 8.45 am tomorrow, is expected not just to endorse Mamata Banerjee’s exit but also debate the Congress’s relationship with its other allies like the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

What view the party takes of the Samajwadi Party (SP) which is a political adversary but has nevertheless baled the Congress out in a moment of crisis, will be significant.

In order to consolidate its self-confidence the party is likely to launch a full-strength attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). How it will protect itself from charges of corruption and price rise (on a day when the government has decided to raise the price of sugar and numbers indicate as much as a 10% fall in grain production, leading to further rural hardship) will also be interesting to watch.

Trinamool Congress’s exit has also led to a large number of vacancies in the Council of Ministers. The charge of the Railways Ministry has already been given to CP Joshi. But five posts of Ministers of State are vacant. Besides, several cabinet ministers hold dual charge:  Kapil Sibal (Telecom and HRD); Salman Khurshid (Law and Minority Affairs), Pawan Bansal (Water Resources and Parliamentary Affairs), Sharad Pawar (Agriculture and Food Processing), Anand Sharma (Textiles and Commerce); Jairam Ramesh (Drinking Water and Sanitation and Rural Development);  Selja (Culture and Urban Development) and Veerappa Moily (Corporate Affairs and Power).

Many of these are likely to be divested of at least one.

Vilasrao Deshmukh who held the small industries, science and earth sciences portfolio is dead. The Planning, Atomic Energy and Space portfolio is with PM.

A rejig in government will be followed by changes in the party. This part of the plan is envisioned with the assembly elections which are due in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh at the end of the year. More state elections are to follow.

The way the current schedule looks, a  ministerial reshuffle can either be held on 29 September – the day before the inauspicious period in the Hindu calendar starts – or after October 10 when the poll for two Lok Sabha byelections is held. Vacancies in Jangipur (West Bengal) and Tihri Garhwal (Uttarakhand) Lok Sabha constituencies have to be filled.

The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, is travelling on his maiden trip as President to Jammu and Kashmir on 26 and 27 September. He is due to return to Delhi on 28 September. His presence in Delhi is essential for a reshuffle.