Cabinet expansion likely after August 15
George Iype in New Delhi
In an attempt to smoothen the ruffled feathers of his coalition partners, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will expand his council of ministers after the Independence Day celebrations on August 15.
Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu told Rediff On The Net that the party leadership has requested the prime minister to carry out the much-awaited first Cabinet expansion.
"We had promised our allies that some more representatives would be accommodated in the government. Therefore, there will not be much delay in expanding the Cabinet," he said.
Naidu said the prime minister will also fill up the vacancies created by the resignation of three ministers in the past four months from the government. They were the independent member of Parliament Buta Singh and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MPs S Muthaiah and R K Kumar.
But sources said the party leadership has suggested to the prime minister to induct at least five senior party MPs during the Cabinet expansion.
The prime minister is said to have already made up his mind to promote his two close confidants -- Pramod Mahajan and Jaswant Singh -- as Cabinet ministers with crucial portfolios. Both Mahajan and Singh were defeated in the last Lok Sabha elections, but were accommodated as Rajya Sabha MPs two months back.
Mahajan -- Vajpayee's key political trouble-shooter -- is expected to be appointed parliamentary affairs minister in place of Madan Lal Khurana who is also the minister for tourism.
Though officially Singh is the deputy chairperson of Planning Commission, after the nuclear tests in May, he has been the prime minister's globe-trotting super diplomat. Vajpayee is expected to bestow the external affairs portfolio on Singh.
From among the allies, more ministerial berths will be given to the AIADMK, the Samata Party, the Biju Janata Dal and the Akali Dal. While the AIADMK is expected to get a Cabinet rank and a state ministership, the others are likely to be given one state ministership each.
Though Mamata Bannerjee's Trinamul Congress has refused to be part of the Vajpayee ministry, BJP sources said the prime minister will compel Mamata to join the government.
The BJP leadership feels that the Cabinet expansion will help calm down its crucial allies like the AIADMK, the Samata Party and the Akali Dal which have threatened to withdraw support to the government for one reason or the other.
Naidu said the apex co-ordination committee of the coalition partners will be convened soon to sort out the issues and differences that have come up from among the allies.
BJP insiders disclosed that an immediate meeting of the coalition partners has become imperative in view of the Akali Dal's ultimatum to the government and the AIADMK's relentless demand to sack the M Karunanidhi government in Tamil Nadu.
The Akali Dal and the Samata Party have virtually threatened to pull out from the coalition over the creation of the new states of Uttaranchal, Vananchal and Chattisgarh.
The draft bills to carve out these new states have hit a roadblock after stiff resistance from the Akali Dal and the Samata Party in the just-concluded Budget session of Parliament.
The co-ordination committee meeting will also assess the nine-week long Budget session which, many allies allege, completely failed to deliver many of the promises made in the coalition's national agenda of governance.
There have been hardly any major legislative measures that the BJP can flaunt as an achievement in the Budget session A section of senior BJP leaders also feels that the government tried to take refuge behind the stiff resistance put up by less than 30-odd MPs on the Women's Reservation Bill during the Budget session.
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