Red marks on card may block Cabinet entry

NEW DELHI: The Congress leadership is using a detailed report card it has prepared on ministers��� performance during Manmohan Singh���s first term, to determine the allocation of Cabinet berths in the new administration, two persons aware of the party���s top leadership���s thinking on the issue said, requesting anonymity.

Failing to make the grade are the Congress��� Sushilkumar Shinde, power minister in the outgoing regime, the PMK���s Anbumani Ramadoss, who was the health minister, and the DMK���s TR Baalu, who held the shipping and road transport portfolio.

Among those passing with flying colours are P Chidambaram (home), Kamal Nath (commerce & industry), Pranab Mukherjee(foreign affairs), Murli Deora (petroleum & natural gas) and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. This means they may get strategic portfolios , though not necessarily the current ones.

���Poor performers from the previous regime are unlikely to get any key economic portfolios crucial for economic growth,��� according to one of those in the know of the decision-making process.

The performance criterion will be applicable more stringently to the Congress��� ministers , while some exceptions possibly could be made because of political considerations for members of parties making up the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), he observed.

According to a former minister and key Congress official, the political leadership cutting across party lines concedes that the performance of Mr Chidambaram, who replaced Shivraj Patil as home minister after the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, was commendable.