New Delhi, May 22
The newly-inducted cabinet minister Ghulam Nabi Azad is likely to visit Chennai on Saturday for talks with DMK chief M Karunanidhi to end the stalemate over allocation of ministerial berths.
Armed with a compromise formula, Azad’s brief is to act as a troubleshooter and persuade Karunanidhi. The DMK had announced that it was ready to give outside support to the Congress-led government but would not let go of its demands on Cabinet berths and ministerial portfolios for its MPs.
As part of the agreement, sources say the DMK may land up with seven ministerial berths, including Cabinet posts for favourites — TR Baalu and A Raja. There is stiff resistance from the Congress leadership that the party should hold its own and not give way to any sort of strong-arm tactics by its Tamil Nadu ally but it also does not want to alienate its pre-poll ally.
“Though Raja and Baalu may not retain their old portfolios they are likely to find a place in the government along with Dayanidhi Maran, Karunanidhi’s son MK Azhagiri and daughter Kanimozhi,” they say, adding that the party may get chemical and fertilisers, heavy industries and telecom besides four MoS portfolios.
The DMK supremo, who left for Chennai this morning with Azhagiri after the negotiations with the Congress leadership failed on Thursday, left instructions that DMK MPs should attend the swearing-in ceremony of Manmohan Singh and his Cabinet at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Senior DMK leader and former Surface Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister T R Baalu, who, along with former IT
and Communication Minister A Raja, is the major bone of contention between the Congress and the DMK said in Chennai: “All DMK MPs will attend the swearing-in ceremony….DMK is not worried. Congress is our friend,” indicating that the party was open to talks with the grand old party to end the stalemate.
If Congress sources are to be believed it was party general secretary Rahul Gandhi who was keen to keep Baalu and Raja out of the Cabinet. His contention was that the Congress should project a clean and corruption-free image. Baalu and Raja had landed the previous UPA government in a major controversy over the Sethusamudram project and the 3G spectrum auction and there was a clear mandate within the Congress that new government should be projected as corruption-free.
Baalu is also seen as being responsible for slowdown in the highway programme and turning the NHAI into a contracting agency. Another low point was when truckers went on strike twice in 2008 and 2009. He also landed in controversy when he admitted that he had sought gas allocation for a company owned by his son in Parliament. Raja got into a controversy over spectrum allocation. He was accused of giving away spectrum at throwaway prices, estimated to have caused a Rs 60,000-crore loss to the exchequer. It was this reservation that the Congress had against these two leaders that led the DMK to walk out of the discussion table.
As per the UPA sources, the formula being followed for allocation was: one cabinet portfolio and one MoS post for seven MPs. The Congress, resisting attempts from allies to corner important portfolios, was determined not to allow allies to hog a disproportionate share of ministerial berths.
