The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is upset with the Prime Minister's Office for not including DMK's M K Alagiri in the Empowered Group of Ministers on drought.
Alagiri, who is now in Japan heading an official delegation, has brought to the notice of the PMO the omission of his name.
The other members of the EGoM on drought are P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh, Jaipal Reddy, Kamal Nath Pawan Kumar Bansal, Mukul Roy, Sushil Kumar Shinde, special invitees Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Namo Narain Meena and K V Thomas.
The second political angle to this formation of the EGoM according to a source is that the Congress has asked Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar to head the GoM on drought, as he wanted to sidetrack the drought issue with his resignation drama.
The prime minister on Monday constituted an EGoM on drought, which will meet on Tuesday to review the monsoon situation, as 22 per cent deficit rains so far have affected sowing of Kharif crops, particularly coarse cereals.
"I have planned an EGoM on drought on the coming Tuesday," Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who was recently made head of EGoM on drought, said.
The EGoM is authorised to review the situation and take "quick and timely decisions" on policy and other matters for effective management of drought. Pawar, who joined office on Thursday after issues related to a week-long stand-off between the Congress and his party were sorted out, said the ministry is collecting details from states on the impact of poor rains.
