It may be a small cabinet expansion, but it is significant. Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda has not only fulfilled the long-standing desire of the steering committee of the United Front to give representation to the National Confererence in the cabinet, but he has also successfully inducted Kerala JD president Veerendrakumar - someone of his own choice - without anyone raising a finger.
While JD insiders say Veerendrakumar is being rewarded for organising successful meetings for the Prime Minister in Kerala last year and for his unflinching loyalty, Gowda himself his explaining away his induction as a result of the aspirations of the Jain community who wanted a representation in the ministry. The CPI, which is the first casualty of the postponement of a full expansion it has been asking for a third seat in the ministry ever since two of its leaders were inducted into the cabinet appears to have been pacified by Gowda, who has promised to fulfil his promise in the first week of May.
In fact the Prime Minister would have had a tougher time pacifying his own party MPs, as a large number of them have been actively lobbying for ministerial berths. Keeping this in mind, people like Independent MP GG Swell, whose name is being backed by Lok Sabha Speaker PA Sangma, and Amar Singh, who is being backed by Mulayam Singh Yadav, were also not inducted.
Telugu Desam Party (TDP), whose leader and Andhra Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu is the convenor of the United Front, has been demanding that at least one of its representatives should get a cabinet berth.
Gowda has been explaining to his freinds that yesterdays expansion was only to accomodate Soz. Though none has protested openly for being left out, there is a murmur of protest here and there. Ridiculing the Prime Minister on the expansion, a Front leader said his whole thrust seems to be on how to survive. And he is a very secretive man. He thought that the PM should have either expanded the cabinet a month ago or should have waited for the budget session to be over. He was bitter that the cabinet was expanded after the commencement of the budget session, that too to induct Swell and Virendra Kumar.
Gowda should have worked towards reviving the Janata Dal and building credibility for the party. Virendra Kumar would be of no consequence either to Kerala or to other states. A JD aspirant bitterly complained that Gowda believed that ones like Amar Singh (the business executive turned politician and the general secretary of the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav) and G G Swell (independent) would be better performers as ministers than the politicians.
Ajit peeved at being left out
Bhartiya Kisan Kamgar Union leader Ajit Singh is said to be extremely upset over being left out of yesterdays cabinet expansion. Singh insisted on the civil aviation portfolio, and a United Front source said CM Ibrahim refused to let go of it. The portfolio has shot Ibrahim into the limelight over the Tata-Singapore Airlines issue. Ibrahim is willing to give up only the information and broadcasting portfolio.
Ajit Singh will now have to wait for the next expansion, which may take place after the budgest session of Parliament in May. Singh was recently re-elected to the Lok Sabha from the Baghpat constituency. He had resigned his seat when he decided to leave the Congress for the UF.
Perhaps already aware of his fate in the expansion, Ajit Singh earlier this week announced in Lucknow that he was not going to join the government.
He had also commented on the longivity of the coalition government.
Despite the dissapointment, Ajit Singh was present at the first meeting of the United Front parliamentary group. Sources in the UF said Singh may not be the only one to be unhappy over the Cabinet expansion. There are a large number of other aspirants who are claiments, many of them belonging to the Janata Dal.
