All eyes on Cabinet recast

NEW DELHI: With the monsoon session of Parliament coming to a close on Friday, speculation has now intensified on the impending Cabinet expansion. While the exit of Mr Shivraj Patil from the Union home ministry is more or less a certainty, the Cabinet expansion may be a much bigger exercise given the number of existing vacancies.

While the external affairs ministry tops the list, the recent exit of TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao from the Cabinet over the Telengana issue has also thrown up a vacancy in the labour ministry.

Mr Singh is expected to announce the new Cabinet by the first or second week of next month. He is scheduled to embark on a 8-day foreign tour after that, and may not want to hold back his ministry’s expansion till his return. Besides, a foreign minister has to be appointed soon as the prime minister or a minister of state for external affairs cannot attend UN conventions.

The buzz in political circles here is that the upcoming Cabinet expansion may involve a major shuffling of portfolios. With the MEA expected to go to either Mr Shivraj Patil or Mr P Chidambaram, the top slots are set for a shake-up. Defence minister Pranab Mukherjee is being cited as a contender for the Union home minister’s post.

A section within the Congress is also gunning for Union HRD minister Arjun Singh. This section is of the view that the HRD minister’s quota activism has earned the Congress the wrath of the upper-castes. However, the party may find it difficult to shunt him out as the legislative process on the Bill has just begun.

Mr Patil, who has not shown much of a taste for internal security management, has been a constant source of embarrassment for the party. His ‘lacklustre’ handling of critical issues is being seen as having a demoralising effect on the security agencies. It is felt that a person with some experience and appropriate stature should handle the key ministry.

The changes at the top will leave the ministers belonging to alliance parties unaffected. In the coalition matrix, the main party has the elbow room to decide only on its ministers. In the coming reshuffle, the TRS’ exit from the alliance will help the Congress to accommodate one of its leaders in the ministry.