Ministry Expansion A Real Test For Laloo

For the next five days while the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) workers will be in a lull after the hectic political exercise leading to their victory, party president Laloo Prasad Yadav will have to burn the midnight oil for accomplishing a more complicated task of ministry formation.

With the Congress all set to join the ministry as per the agreement reached between the two parties, the expansion of the Rabri Devi ministry will be a real test for the crafty RJD chief, who until now wielded absolute power and dispensed the job with alacrity.

Though the CPM and BSP have decided to remain out of the ministry, the 22-member Congress (minus Speaker) is ready to join the ministry but on their own terms. Some of the senior Congress MLCs appeared salivating at the prospect of joining the government after a lapse of ten years. The Congress, which provided the much-needed help at the time of the crisis and played a crucial role in re-installing the Rabri Devi Government once again, has mounted pressure on the RJD chief for wresting some key departments, which were crucial to run the government. It appears that the Congress has cast itself to play the role of a 'reformer' by taking command of some important departments and improve their functioning, which the RJD ministers had failed to do. It is probably in this background that the name of former Foreign Secretary Muchkund Dubey is doing the rounds in the state for the post of Finance Minister in Bihar.

 

State Congress leaders contended that they would not be a party to any kind of wishy-washy approach of the Rabri Devi Government towards development and restoration of the law and order situation to instill confidence among the people. We have agreed upon a common minimum programme to run a coalition government. If the RJD dithered on any of its promises we will be free to take any drastic action, acting BPCC chief Chandan Bagchi categorically said.

Informed sources said the Congress has demanded Irrigation, Health, Education, Rural Development and Finance among others and preferred a coordination committee of both RJD and Congress members to implement the common minimum programme.