Ajay Maken on Saturday resigned as Union minister for housing and urban poverty alleviation ahead of reshuffles of the Cabinet and the AICC expected next week.
Some Union ministers are expected to follow him and work in the organisation. While Union minister Jairam Ramesh is said to be keen to work in the organisation, it will be interesting to see whether the controversial Rajeev Shukla will retain in his seat in the Cabinet.
Congress managers are tight-lipped about whether top ministers would be disturbed ahead of the 2014 general election while speculation of a senior minister being sent to a state as chief minister refuses to die.
The Congress high command has made up its mind to rejig the Cabinet and the organisation following party vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s series of meetings with party officials at the AICC and in states over the last three and a half months. “This is going to be the election team of the party,” a Congress leader said.
A reshuffle of AICC could happen simultaneously, or a little before or after.
Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is also general secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, could be divested of responsibility for the states. Ms Ambika Soni and Mr Digvijay Singh could be given important responsibilities in this exercise.
Meanwhile, Congress sources said Mr Maken could be made either Delhi Congress chief or an AICC general secretary. A section of the party feels he could even be made the chief minister of Delhi ahead of Assembly elections later this year.
In fact, Mr Maken’s possible elevation to Delhi PCC chief could lead to his indirect projection as the next CM of Delhi. Incumbent Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit has been at the helm of affairs for the past 15 years, setting a record of sorts in independent India as a woman CM for three consecutive terms. Current Delhi PCC chief J.P. Agarwal is not on the best of terms with Ms Dikshit.
Mr Maken was a one-time protégé of Ms Dikshit but had later fallen out. Some time ago there was talk of Ms Dikshit being made a minister at the Centre.
The reshuffle-cum-expansion of the Union Cabinet could take place any time next week, as was clear following a meeting between Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here recently. Dr Singh had earlier said there were some vacancies and the issue of filling them up was being considered.
The latest Cabinet vacancies were created by the resignations of Union ministers Pawan Kumar Bansal and Ashwani Kumar. In the reshuffle, ministers holding two portfolios could be divested of one.
With the DMK and the Trinamul Congress withdrawing support to the UPA government within less than a year, a number of slots vacated by them are yet to filled. Five ministers from the DMK had resigned on March 20 this year after which there has been no reshuffle of the Cabinet. They had held the positions of minister of state in the finance, commerce and industry, health and family welfare and social justice ministries. The only Cabinet minister they had was M.K. Alagiri, who was in charge of chemicals and fertilisers. Two DMK Cabinet ministers had resigned earlier — Mr Dayanidhi Maran and Mr A. Raja — the latter in connection with the 2G spectrum allocation scam.
A number of ministers are also likely to be asked to quit because the party is keen to draft them for organisational work ahead of the next Lok Sabha polls.