NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister is not expanding his ministry till January 14 because he has been advised by a godman that it would be inauspicious to do so before Makara Sankramti according 10 sources in the cabinet and the Prime Minister’s office (PMO).
The sources say that P.V. Narasimha Rao does plan to expand his ministry before the Budget session of Parliament which stars on February 19 and to give the new ministers as much time as possible before they have to face the MP’s on the floor of the calculating on the basis of this the sources expect the ministry expansion to occur any day between January 15 & February 9 despite Rao’s recent statement in Vadodara that he does not plan to make any changes in his ministry.
While the stars will have a bearing on the exact day according to sources in the PMO it will also probably be determined by the state of affairs in the Janata Dal because the Prime Minister wants to give expelled Janata Dal leader Ajit Singh the maximum possible time to get20 MPs on his side and thus split the Dal (which had 59 MPs before the expulsions) cording to Congress sources.
Most Congressmen expect that Ajit and his followers will not join the ruling party formally at least not right away but will promise support from outside if the split comes through. In that case though the government will still technically be in a minority in the Lok Sabha it cannot be outvoted even by the combined strength of the parties which have clearly indicated that they are in the Opposition.
In return for this support the group has been promised up to three ministerial berths it is learnt.
The cabinet sources do not think Singh will manage to get 20 MPs on his side and then the ministerial berths will not materialize. As one Union minister put it “Ajit’s biggest mistake was to use Subramaniam Swamy as the go-between in his talks with the Congress. In our profession Swamy is known as the kiss of death”.
While the Ajit factor remains uncertain there is much speculation among ministers now on whether Rao is going to merely expand his ministry or reshuffle portfolios and even drop some ministers.
So far the Prime Minister has given no hint to his colleagues of what’s on his mind but Congress leaders expect that he will ask a senior minister from Kar nataka to replace chief minister S. Bangarappa in view of the letter’s handling of the state bandh the dissidence the CM is facing within the party and the need to lower the ante in the Cauvery dispute.
Some Congress leaders say Rao now assign the foreign ministry to Madhavrao Scindia as had been widely expected before he formed his ministry last summer. With Gujarat chief minister Chimanbhai Patels plan to enter the Congress indefinitely postponed due to rifts with his JD (G) the present Foreign minister Madhavsinh Solankimay be asked to proceed to Gandhinagar and replace him according to a senior All-India Congress Committee (AICC) leader.
Cabinet sources say that if Ajit Singh is made a minister he will be given the industry portfolio which he had in the V.P. Singh cabinet as has been speculated upon for months now. But if he does not make this time for one reason or another. Rao is likely to hand over his portfolio to a cabinet minister anyway rather than continue to head it himself because given the governments new economic policies the industry ministry needs a senior cabinet minister full-time.
Most of the other changes or “additions in the Union ministry are expected to be at the level of ministers of state (MOS) or deputy ministers. Congress leaders say the Prime Mini probably take away the extra Portfolios that some ministers have at the MOS level and use these to sive representation to stats like Bihar which are apparently feeling neglected right now.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 24, 1992
