Hooda gets high command nod for cabinet expansion

Paving way for the much-awaited expansion of Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Haryana cabinet,the Congress high command has discussed and narrowed down the names of the probables. Party sources said that apart from filling in the two vacant cabinet berths,Hooda will also appoint two to three Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPSes). A final decision on the names,mostly CM-loyalists,will be taken Tuesday while the expansion will be done before the ongoing auspicious navratras end.

Giving in to pressure from his Man Friday and friend Ambala MLA Venod Sharma’s demand,Hooda seems set to induct Speaker Kuldeep Sharma,a brahmin,in the cabinet. Venod’s son is married to the Speaker’s daughter. If Kuldeep joins the cabinet,the party will have to take call on whether former Speaker Raghuvir Singh Kadian or former finance minister Sampat Singh will take charge as Speaker. While Kadian is Hooda’s close friend,Sampat was promised a cabinet seat after he snapped his three-decade long ties with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) to join the Congress.

For the second cabinet post,there is a stiff competition between Hisar MLA Savitiri Jindal and Nuh MLA Aftab Ahmed. Jindal,who had remained a minister,had to make way to accommodate the Independents who let support and helped Hooda form the government after the Congress was reduced to minority with 40 seats in the 2009 Assembly polls. On the other hand,Aftab Ahmed,whose name has cropped up in the land deals between UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra and the DLF,was allegedly promised a ministerial berth as a quid pro quo.

The vacancies in the cabinet were created after OP Jain and Gopal Goyal Kanda had to resign following their names figuring in different criminal cases.

Meamwhile,Hooda is also likely to induct two to three CPSes. Among the frontrunners are Dharam Singh Chhoker and Panchkula MLA Devendra Kumar Bansal. Choker along with four others had deserted Kuldeep Bishnoi-led Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) to join the Congress and was the only one who was not adjusted in the cabinet.