JOIN USHowever, as soon as the news trickled down on Friday afternoon that both Kharge and Dharam Singh were not in the list, at least for now, the crowd slowly disappeared. The focus then turned to the Tughlaq lane house of M Veerappa Moily who, it was announced, would be in the ministry. Another group started waiting for S M Krishna to greet him.
As news channels started beaming that Krishna would arrive by a special flight, party workers rushed towards the airport and the hotel he usually stays. Though the crowd couldn’t find him there, their joy did not subside. They finally caught a glimpse of him at Karnataka Bhavan on his arrival after taking the oath.
As the crowd deserted him, Kharge, the man who was dubbed front runner for the post, was huddled with close friends in the Bhavan. As the high command had reportedly assured him a cabinet berth, while persuading him to contest the Lok Sabha polls, Kharge had every reason to aspire for the post. But he waited for the call in vain.
Kharge and Singh have met all top leaders in the party including prime minister Manmohan Singh, party chief Sonia Gandhi and her political secretary Ahmed Patel, and others in the past four days.
When asked about the denial of a ministerial berth, Kharge said: “It is the party president and prime minister’s prerogative to select the ministers.” But sources said Kharge may get a berth in the cabinet expansion scheduled for May 26.