Balwant Singh Ramoowalia was one of the 12 new faces in Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's cabinet. The inclusion of Ramoowalia, a senior vice-president of the Shiromani Akali Dal, was a surprise. Ramoowalia, 73, was the Union minister for social welfare in the United Front government of 1996 to 98 at the Centre led by H D Deve Gowda and later Inder Kumar Gujral. The Akalis were part of that government.
With elections to the UP assembly less than a year and a half away, the CM pushed for a makeover of his government by sacking eight ministers and stripping nine others of their portfolios on Thursday. Ramoowalia quit the Akali Dal before taking oath of office, with other new ministers, on Saturday. The Akalis, upset and shocked at the turn of events, sacked Ramoowalia's daughter as the chairperson of the district planning board of SAS Nagar in Punjab.
Apart from Ramoowalia, the new inductees are younger faces to counter the perception that the Akhilesh government was still being run by his uncles and those close to his father Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. Most of the new ministers belong to other backward castes and minorities.
Two-phase Kerala local body polls on Nov 2, 5
Kerala local body elections will be held this week, in two phases on November 2 and 5.Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Idukki, Kozhikode, Kannur, Waynad and Kasargod districts will go to polls on November 2, while elections in Kottayam, Pathnamthitta, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Malappuram and Palakkad districts will be held on November 5. Results will be out on November 7. The result will be a dipstick for the Assembly elections due later in 2016.
The local body elections have been hotly contested and a bitter campaign is going on with the Bharatiya Janata Party cosying upto the SNDP, an organisation of the strong backward Ezhava community. SNDP General Secretary Vellapally Natesan had also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi earlier this month.
The BJP does not have the strength to form a government but Ezhava votes have traditionally been with the Left Front. If the BJP is able to tear some sections away, the Assembly election might result in a second term for the Congress-led United Democratic Front.
Bihar awaits Assembly poll results on November 8
The new week is going to be one of the most important in the history of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. After the last phase of the Bihar elections on November 5, November 8 will see counting and results. What bearing will the results have on the state and the centre? If the NDA wins the election it will be a shot in the arm for the BJP and Narendra Modi who has spared no effort in campaigning for the Bihar election. Expect a number of new initiatives to be taken by the government unafraid of hurdles like the Rajya Sabha where the government does not have a majority.
But if it loses, the opposition is likely to become energised and reinvigorated. It will be even more obstructive in Parliament where no significant business was transacted in the last session of Parliament. A post mortem within the BJP could also lead to an organisational reshuffle. In short, a most exciting time.
Only one 'power centre' in Karnataka
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah finally got permission to expand his Cabinet last week and inducted the biggest parallel authority in Karnataka, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president G Parameshwara (MLC) and three others into the government. Permission, because he had to come to Delhi to take the assent of the High Command - Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Vice-President Rahul Gandhi and general secretary in charge of Karnataka, Digvijaya Singh - before he could go ahead.
There has been no reshuffle of the Cabinet. The last cabinet expansion was in 2013 and D K Shivakumar and R Roshan Baig were inducted. But the most interesting element in the exercise is that Parameshwara's longstanding demand for the post of the Deputy Chief Minister, has been turned down because the party is not interested in creating another 'power centre' in the State. Parameshwara had served as the higher education minister in the S M Krishna government. In the 2013 Assembly elections he lost to JD(S) candidate P R Sudhakarlal in Koratagere constituency (SC) in Tumakuru district.
But this week will answer the question: who will head the party in Karnataka, now that Parameshwara has become a minister? BJP leaders are already asking their cadres to be ready for an election because the Congress government might collapse due to internal contradictions. While that seems unlikely, politics in the Congress-ruled state is hotting up.
