Congressmen lobby for posts
With the dawn of the New Year, a lot of changes are likely to take place both in the party and in the government, as after Congress president Sonia Gandhi got re-elected to the post, she has to reconstitute her team and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has long been saying that he intends to reduce the average age of his Cabinet.
Since Mrs Gandhi and Dr Singh are keeping the cards close to their chest, Congressmen are seen lobbying hard to secure their positions either in the party or in the government.
Grapevine is abuzz in party circles with speculation on whose stock is on the rise in the light of the role at the recently-concluded AICC plenary in the national capital. Is Ms Jayanti Natarajan, who seconded foreign policy resolution, tipped for a ministerial berth? Similar speculation is on whether Mr Shakeel Ahmed, who spoke on it, would get some important organisational responsibility. One wonders whether commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma, who moved the foreign policy resolution, and not external affairs minister S.M. Krishna, would be the next foreign minister.
Sources in the party indicated that law minister M. Veerappa Moily’s role in handling the 2G case in the Supreme Court, where judges made adverse observations against the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), has put his head on the chopping block. But they added that he might be given some organisational assignments as he is likely to return to his previous media department job in the party. With HRD and telecom minister Kapil Sibal being overburdened with his new responsibilities in the backdrop of raging controversy over the alleged 2G spectrum allocation scam, talks are there that he may be relived of his HRD portfolio. Sources said AICC general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi, who is a teacher by profession, may be picked to replace Mr Sibal in the HRD ministry.
Meanwhile, as Assembly elections are round the corner in five states, including important ones like West Bengal and Tamil Nadu where the alliances with regional parties have come under strain, there is every likelihood that the high command will factor in these aspects before finalising changes both in the party organisation as well as in the Cabinet.
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