Manmohan And Sonia Call Up Likely Ministers, Cabinet Finalised

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who met here on Wednesday to discuss the Union Cabinet expansion, are reported to have finalised the names of ministers (Cabinet as well as MoS) to be administered the oath of office on Thursday.

The Cabinet expansion is scheduled for 11:30 am tomorrow, and the PM and UPA chairperson were reported to have finalised on Tuesday “50 per cent” of the names to be included in the Cabinet expansion. Sources said the rest “50 per cent” task was completed during today’s meeting.

In an indication of the completion of the discussions on Cabinet expansion, the Prime Minister and Congress chief are believed to have called up several leaders of the Congress as well as allies.

Dayanidhi Maran, Farooq Abdullah, Ajay Maken, Vir Bhadra Singh, Prithviraj Chavan, Oscar Fernandes, Sriprakash Jaiswal, GK Vasan, Bhakta Charan Das, Mallikaarjun Kharge, M Ramachandaran and KV Thomas are among those who have received calls from the duo, apparently being informed about their inclusion in the Union Council of Ministers.

The PM, who was sworn in on May 22 along with 19 other Cabinet ministers, will expand his Council of Ministers on Thursday with the likely induction of around 50 ministers.

Sources said finishing touches were given to the list of ministers today amid reports that “50 per cent” of the names and allocation of portfolios were finalised at a meeting of the Congress Core Committee yesterday. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi also had a nearly three-hour-long meeting with the PM yesterday.

Ending the suspense on ministry making, the Rashtrapati Bhavan had announced yesterday that the second round of the swearing in of ministers will take place at 11:30 hours on Thursday.

The expansion exercise is expected to involve a dozen Cabinet ministers, around seven Ministers of State (MoS) with independent charge and 30 MoS.

The magnitude of the pulls and pressures from within and the allies could be gauged from the fact that former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Vir Bhadra Singh threw his hat in the ring for a Cabinet berth.

“I personally feel that representation should be given to all parts of the state and all parts of the country so that all interests are looked after. In exceptional cases, if somebody is left out, an exception can be made for that person also,” he told a TV news channel.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said ministry making was a complex exercise which had to take into account a mix of experience and youth and old and new.

From the DMK, there will be three Cabinet Ministers – MK Azhagiri, Dayanidhi Maran and A Raja. The four Ministers of State are likely to be SS Palanimanickam, Jagatrakshagan, Gandhiselvan and D Napoleon.The probables from the Trinamool Congress include Dinesh Trivedi, Saugata Roy, Sultan Ahmed, Chowdhury Jatua, Sisir Adhikary and Mukul Roy.

NCP’s Praful Patel is expected to be retained as the Civil Aviation Minister with independent charge while party MP Agatha Sangma will be MoS.

The other names doing the rounds are PK Bansal, Mukul Wasnik, Jitin Prasad, Sachin Pilot, Shrikant Jena, Bharatsinh Solanki, Dinsha Patel, Priya Dutt, Gurudas Kamat, Kantilal Bhuria, Charandas Mahant, Harish Rawat and Meenakshi Natarajan.

Congress sources said that the exercise had become a complex affair in view of the efforts to balance social equations in each state as also seniority of leaders.

With only portfolios of six of the 19 Cabinet ministers who were sworn in on Friday announced, the allocation of work for the remaining is also expected to be made known by late Wednesday or early Thursday.

There has been no representation to Uttar Pradesh so far and names of Salman Khurshid, Beni Prasad Verma, PL Punia and Sriprakash Jaiswal are doing the rounds for possible inclusion.

The names of Jairam Ramesh, Subodh Kant Sahai, Vilas Muttemwar, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Manish Tewari are also being talked about for ministerial berths.

Former UN diplomat Shashi Tharoor looks a favourite from Kerala from where the names of Mullapally Ramachandran and PC Chacko are also being mentioned.

A decision on the Speaker will be taken on May 30. Senior Congress leader V Kishore Chandra Deo appears to be a front runner for the post.

Congress sources said that the post of Deputy Speaker may go to the Opposition.

They said the Congress would get proportional representation in the Council of Ministers. Congress has emerged as the single largest party with 206 and with allies and independents it has a support base of 322 members in the 543 member House.

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