The Congress brass is contemplating a reshuffle of the Cabinet, primarily for a redistribution of current assignments among ministers. Sources in the Congress said that apart from Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Cabinet minister Bijoy Krishna Handique may also be divested of some of his responsibilities. Handique currently handles the dual portfolio of Mines and Development of the North Eastern Region.
The mines ministry is likely to go to some other minister.
The Congress is also trying to persuade its key ally, the DMK, to shift Communications Minister A Raja to some other Cabinet portfolio. On Sunday, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee flew to Chennai for a meeting with DMK patriarch and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.
According to sources, Mukherjee, the main interlocutor of the Congress with its allies, has told Karunanidhi that the Congress brass wants Raja to be removed. The Congress leadership may also like to see Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam out of North Block, which houses the ministry. Palanimanickam has been MoS (Finance) since 2004.
Another DMK Minister, M K Alagiri (Karunanidhi’s eldest son) is not keen to stay in Delhi as the Union chemicals and fertilizer minister and wants to go back to Madurai. The DMK MP was in charge of southern Tamil Nadu, including Madurai.
Tamil Nadu is headed for Assembly polls next year and Alagiri wants to consolidate his position in the state.
Karunanidhi, however, is yet to convey his decision on these issues.
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The top Congress leadership also believes there is a possibility that Karunanidhi may replace Alagiri with daughter Kanimozhi, a Rajya Sabha MP, in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet.
The Cabinet reshuffle is going to be followed by an organisational restructuring in the Congress (the organisational elections of the party will be over by July), and the two exercises are likely to address the issue of dual responsibilities of some Congress leaders like Prithviraj Chavan, M Veerappa Moily, Ghulam Nabi Azad, A K Antony and Mukul Wasnik, who are holding both organisational and ministerial responsibilities.
A general secretary of the Congress today said: “There was a discussion in the party earlier that these ministers will be given a choice to hold either of their two responsibilities.”
The final decisions, however, are yet to be taken as sources in the Prime Minister’s Office indicated that no meeting on a Cabinet reshuffle had taken place between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi. But when Sharad Pawar met Singh on Monday and asked him to divest some of his responsibilities, the PM reportedly told the agriculture minister that he would take a call on the issue in a week.
Trinamool Congress, the biggest ally of the Congress in the second UPA with 19 MPs, is likely to get one more MoS, following the reshuffle.