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Soon after the election results were declared on May 16, the Congress headquarters here was abuzz with the word that Rahul may opt for either the Human Resource and Development ministry or the Information and Broadcasting portfolio. The Gandhi scion, however, refused to be dragged into the debate which has been hogging media attention ever since the UPA recorded a stunning victory at the hustings last week. “I have made up my mind….you will soon come to know,” he told reporters after the meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) here on Tuesday.
Party sources said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was keen to have the young AICC general secretary, who was lustily cheered by party MPs at the meeting, in his ministry. But Rahul is understood to have turned down the offer, saying that he would rather involve himself in working to build the organisation in different parts of the country. According to some Congress leaders, such a decision was a “politically astute move” on Rahul’s part.
The Congress top brass continued their efforts in ministry-making and evolved a formula of ministry-sharing among UPA partners. As per the formula, one cabinet and one minister of state position would be earmarked for every seven MPs of different parties. In line with this this equation, the Congress would stand to get 30 ministries, as it has 206 MPs. Congress president Sonia Gandhi received the “wish list” of DMK leader M Karunanidhi who demanded three cabinet and four MoS posts.
As the DMK has 18 and Trinamool Congress has 19 MPs, both parties are likely to get three cabinet and 2-3 MoS posts. The NCP with nine MPs may get one cabinet and two MoS posts.
Key ministries
It is certain that the Congress will keep all the key ministries of home, finance, defence and external affairs with itself. P Chidambaram and A K Antony will to continue with home and defence, respectively, while Pranab Mukherjee might be shifted to finance.
The name of economist and former RBI Governor C Rangarajan is also doing the rounds for the post of Finance Minister.
It is reported that Singh wants Kamal Nath or Kapil Sibal to take over environment and forests since the climate change negotiations are coming up.
H R Bharadwaj, Sushil Shinde, Meira Kumar, Jairam Ramesh are set to continue too.
There is every possibility of the new ministry being having a significant number of young faces: Selja, Mukul Wasnik, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Purandeshwari, and Jatin Prasada are likely to be offered ministerships again alongside Sachin Pilot, Ashok Tanwar, Navin Jindal, Milind Deora, Manica Tagore. Shashi Tharoor may become MoS External Affairs while Salman Khursheed may get inducted too.
The DMK is likely to push the case of Karunanidhi’s son Alagiri, Dayanidhi Maran and A Raja for cabinet berths.
With Mamata unlikely to become minister, the Railways portfolio may go to one of her MPs while her party may get a couple of other important portfolios. Farooq Abdullah of National Conference, E Ahamed of Muslim League are the other certainties in the ministry.
DH News Service