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Rabri Devi faces problems over berth allocation

Our Correspondent in Patna

Bigger the cabinet, bigger the problems. Saturday evening's cabinet expansion by Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi may have brought to an end the fortnight-long speculation and bickering over ministry formation, but it has not solved all her problems.

Three of the seven Congress MLCs have shot letters to party president Sonia Gandhi protesting that the Upper House has been totally ignored in the ministry, though the truth is that the chief minister is herself an MLC.

With 84 ministers -- 40 cabinet and 44 ministers of state -- in her cabinet, Rabri Devi cannot afford to expand it further. Besides, the Congress quota has already been exhausted.

As expected, all the 22 Congress MLAs have become ministers. While 10 got cabinet berths, the rest are ministers of state. Members from smaller parties and several Independents have also been accommodated.

The three MLCs are former BPCC chief Sarfraz Ahmed, Nilambar Chaudhary and Mahachandra Prasad Singh

However, it is from her own party that the chief minister may face problems, as she had dropped three ministers from her previous cabinet although they won the recent assembly elections. This includes the former health minister Dr Mahavir Prasad, Suraj Deo Rai and Ram Chandra Rai. Incidentally all three are Yadavs.

Similarly, the speaker in the outgoing assembly, Deo Narayan Yadav, has also failed to get a berth.

According to sources, Mahavir Prasad was excluded under pressure from the Congress as the income tax department last December raided his official residence in the infamous medicine scam. However, Sri Narayan Yadav, another minister in the last cabinet whose residence was also raided in a different case, has been included.

Political observers feel it was easy for Laloo Yadav to drop Mahavir as till a couple of years back he was among the leading dissidents.

The new ministers include the national and state spokesmen of the RJD, Shivanand Tiwary and Shakeel Ahmed Khan respectively. Two fathers have replaced their sons as ministers in Rabri's cabinet. They are former Union minister of state for home affairs Taslimuddin and Shakuni Chaudhary. Taslimuddin's son Sarfraz was a minister in the last cabinet while the latter's son Samrat Chaudhary was forced to quit on November 16 last year when he was found `under-age' following a probe ordered by the then governor, Suraj Bhan.

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