Shinde drops 22

Several state ministers on Tuesday lost their jobs as chief ministers raced against the 7 July deadline to reduce the size of their ministries to 15 per cent of the size of the state legislatures.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde submitted the resignations of 22 ministers to Governor Mohammad Fazal, admitting he was not happy about it. Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Vir Bhadra Singh dropped three ministers bringing down their number to 12.

Uttaranchal Chief Minister ND Tewari, already facing flak from a section of the Congress, had to drop five ministers from his Cabinet, reducing its strength to 12 to meet the constitutional requirement.

Three of these belong to the camp of Harish Rawat, rival to Tewari. Two of the ministers said Tewari was weakening the party in the state.

In the Northeast, Arunachal Chief Minister Gegong Apang was set to shed 21 ministers, DD Lapang in Meghalaya drop-ped 27 and N Rio, who heads a coalition government in Nagaland sacked 22.

Most the north-east governments are coalition governments. In Meghalaya, for instance, there was pressure to retain regional and tribal balance. In the trimmed Cabinet, the Hill State People's Democratic Party, which had a single nominee in Revenue Minister GA Khon-glam, also a former chief minister, was dropped.

In Manipur, all 31 ministers resigned. The maximum number of ministers in the Manipur government, including the chief minister can be 12.

In Goa, Minister for Protocol and Forests Vinay Tendulkar resigned from the Manohar Parrikar ministry taking the strength of the council of ministers to 12.

"I was asked to resign by the party a month ago and handed over my resignation this morning," he said. "I have no regrets about losing my ministry nor do I have any expectations that I would be given a compensatory post somewhere else," he said.

In Chhattisgarh too, five ministers resigned out of 17 from the Raman Singh ministry, but were expected to be accommodated, with Cabinet rank as chiefs of authorities for the development of tribal areas like Sarguja and Bastar.