By Gopal Ethiraj from Chennai
Chennai, 24 May: (Asiantribune.com): The standoff between the Congress and the DMK over the number of cabinet berths could end soon. This indication is available as the DMK Chief and Tamil Nadu CM Karunanidhi on Saturday said the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s remarks on the issue of induction of two ministers from his party has cleared the air.
Responding to Dr. Singh’s invitation to the DMK to participate in the Ministry, the DMK chief, in a three-line statement, thanked the Prime Minister and said, “Our high level action committee will soon take a decision."
"We thank Manmohan Singh for the clarification on the two DMK Ministers in his previous cabinet, T R Baalu and A Raja, who had been the target of some Delhi-based satellite television channels," he said and added that the Prime Minister's statement had cleared the air on two DMK Central Ministers.
The Prime Minister yesterday described Baalu and Raja as "our honoured colleagues", and told the mediapedrsons "there is no question about having any reservation," at the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on being asked about the two DMK leaders. Singh had also hoped that DMK, which had announced that it was supporting the government from outside, will "see reason", reconsider its decision and come back.
“Whatever UPA offered is reasonable. They (DMK) are our respected colleagues. We still hope in the next few days they will reconsider their decision," the Prime Minister had said.
DMK chief Karunanidhi's son M.K. Azhagiri on Saturday (May 23) said that the party will announce their decision over the participation in the ministry tomorrow. He also said that consultations are on within the party's top brass over the same.
Karunanidhi as soon as he returned from New Delhi yesterday was to have party’s Executive Council in the evening, which did not take place. Instead he had gone for health check-up with the Apollo Hospitals. Maybe he did not want a meeting going on here as the swearing-in ceremony was taking place at Rashtrapathi Bhavan in the Capital. When the high-level committee will meet is not known. This morning the CM continued his informal discussions with his senior party leaders on Congress party's reported offer of three cabinet Ministers and four Ministers of state in a bid to end the deadlock between the two parties on ministerial berths and portfolios.
Senior DMK leaders, who met Karunanidhi at his residence, declined to reveal details of the talks. “I cannot share with you what transpired inside (the house) but can only say that discussions (over joining the Union Cabinet) were held," party's senior leader and PWD Minister Duraimurugan said.
T R Baalu, A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran are the names doing the rounds for the cabinet berths from the party. M K Azhagiri, Karunanidhi's son and Kanimozhi, DMK chief's daughter are being tipped for ministers of state with independent charges and MPs S Jagatrakshakan and A K S Vijayan for Ministers of State.
Six portfolios distributed
S.M. Krishna, former Karnataka CM and a surprise inclusion in the Union Cabinet, was on Saturday made the new External Affairs Minister and Mamata Banerjee given Railways in partial allocation of portfolios in which veterans Pranab Mukherjee and P. Chidambaram have been retained in Finance and Home Ministries respectively.
In the allocation of portfolios by the PM, A.K. Antony stays in Defence and Sharad Pawar with Agriculture, Food, Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, ministries they had handled in the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. The PM had said the portfolio distribution would take two or three days yesterday
However, surprisingly the limited allocation of portfolios was announced by the Rashtrapati Bhavan today on the advice of the Prime Minister, who preferred to get down to business and distributed ministries on which there are apparently no differences. So far six portfolios have been distributed. Portfolios for Ministers including Kamal Nath, Kapil Sibal, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jaipal Reddy, Anand Sharma and new entrants like Veerappa Moily and C P Joshi are yet to be announced.
- Asian Tribune -
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