Hopefuls await Cabinet reshuffle
Ministerial hopefuls are waiting anxiously for May-end amid talk that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will go in for a major reshuffle of his council of ministers at that time.
According to well-placed sources, Dr Singh could go in for this exercise once the results of the five state Assembly elections are announced on May 13. The terms of the
current Legislative Assemblies of these states expire in May and June. This means a new Assembly in Tamil Nadu will have to be constituted before May 16, Kerala before May 23, Puducherry and Assam before May 28 and West Bengal before June 11.
If Congress insiders are to be believed, the PM could undertake the long-awaited exercise either before the second anniversary of UPA-II or in the last week of May. The PM has already announced that a reshuffle would be held after the Budget Session of Parliament. But this could not take place because the session was curtailed due to the Assembly elections in five states. Earlier, Dr Singh had elevated Mr Praful Patel, Mr Shriprakash Jaiswal and Mr Salman Khurshid to Cabinet rank from minister of state (independent charge). He had also promoted Mr Ajay Maken and Prof. K.V. Thomas from MoS to independent charge and inducted Mr Beni Prasad Verma.
At that time he did not drop a single minister. But, this time, his priorities could be different, they said, indicating that the PM could evaluate the performance of his ministers on the basis of their work in the past two years.
Asked would the PM really reshuffle his team, they said Dr Singh had himself made his intentions clear. The PM would have to look for a new railway minister if the Trinamul Congress forms a government under the leadership of Ms Mamata Banerjee. Besides, the DMK would have to be given a new ministry in place of telecom as per the power-sharing arrangement. But the outcome of the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections could change the rules of the game.
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