Who is number 2 in government?

[1]

With Mr Pranab Mukherjee’s departure from the Union Cabinet, there seems to be major confusion over the government’s number two slot. On Thursday, the Prime Minister’s Office took the unprecedented step of removing the Cabinet list from the PMO website.

In the government website www.india.gov.in, however, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar’s name still appears after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Earlier, his name was also in the number two slot in the PMO website http://pmindia.nic.in [2] after Mr Mukherjee’s name was removed. PMO officials said the name of Mr Pawar, earlier third on the list, moved up automatically.This appeared to give the impression that Mr Pawar, head of the Nationalist Congress Party, was number two in the Cabinet.

"Since queries kept pouring in at the PMO, it removed the list for the time being to avoid any confusion or controversy," sources said, adding that it will be put up again at the earliest.

The List of PM's team now starts with Minister of State (moS) Idependent Charge." While claiming that "there is nothing political about it," the PMO indicated that the list should be up at the earliest.

Technically, the number two is expected to manage and run the government in absence of the Primer Minister. Everytime, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh was out of country, it was Mr Mukherjee running the show and his presence in the national Capital was mandatory.

Sources said that following "lack of clarity, confusion apparently prevails over the number two slot in the government."

Conventionally, the number two in the union cabinet goes to the senior most minister from the prinicpal ruling party of the coalition government. Also the number two in the government is conventially member of the cabinet committee on security (CCS).

Mr Pawar is an ally and not a member of the CCS. Some of the seniors beging tipped to be number two include Home Minister, P. Chidambaram, Defence Minister, A.K. Anotny and External Affairs Minister, S.M. Krishna.

It may be recalled that during the NDA reigme, evern before he was elevated to the post of deputy Prime Minister, Mr L.K. Advani remained number two in the Vajpayee government.