Congress high command's tough posture quelled dissidents

The high command reportedly wielded the stick to make the disgruntled ministers fall in line and accept whatever portfolios were given to them, highly-placed government sources said.

A majority of the dissident ministers, including the new ones, quietly took charge of their assignments without any further murmur today.

The lone unhappy minister Vatti Vasantha Kumar, who submitted his resignation to Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Wednesday night protesting allocation of Tourism portfolio, appeared to be have reconciled today and indicated that he would withdraw his papers.

As Kiran Kumar Reddy was Sonia Gandhi’s choice for chief ministership, some of the top AICC leaders, who were deployed to bring round the dissidents, ensured the rebellion was stemmed in quick time, the sources said.

K V P Ramchandra Rao, Rajya Sabha member and the Man Friday of late Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, played trouble-shooter by acting as the main link between the Chief Minister and the Congress high command.

Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel, Union Ministers Ghulam Nabi Azad and M Veerappa Moily chipped in not only to placate the sulking ministers but also to subtly warn them that any such public show of discontent would not be tolerated.

A senior minister, who was perceived to have triggered the rebellion, was reportedly told by the high command in no uncertain terms that the list of portfolios was "final" as it was cleared by Sonia Gandhi herself.

When he sought to counter by saying that backward classes did not get a fair share of ministerial berths, the Congress central leaders were understood to have told him: "we have a list of everyone’s acts of omissions and commissions of the past. Don’t try to dictate anything."

The minister promptly assumed charge of his new portfolio today. Reading the high command’s signals, other ministers too moved into their chambers and got down to business.