Maharashtra Cong wants bigger slice of Cabinet pie

With two more Narayan Rane loyalists, MLAs Shyam Sawant and Kalidas Kolamkar, joining the Congress today, the party has upped the ante for a larger share of the state cabinet pie.

Announcing that two more Sena MLAs have joined the Congress flock on Friday, state Congress Chief Prabha Rau said, "We would definitely like to have more berths in the state cabinet but the final decision in this regard would be taken by the high command."

After the 2004 Assembly polls, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had emerged as the single largest party in the state and its tally was more than that of the Congress  by two seats.

During the prolonged power-sharing negotiations which followed, the NCP agreed to give up the chief minister's post to the Congress in lieu of four more berths in the Cabinet.

However, after Rane defected to the Congress and with  MLAs backing him joining Congress in installments, power equations in the state are changing rapidly.

It is expected that five more MLAs supporting Rane would join Congress in the near future. The three former Sena MLAs who joined Congress earlier last year are going to face the elections on January 21.