NEW DELHI, NOV 23: It could not be a mere coincidence that after yesterday's reshuffle of portfolios, all the 12 non-BJP Cabinet Ministers in the Atal Behari Vajpayee Government have their deputies from the BJP.BJP leaders insist that nothing much should be read into allocation of portfolios while allies suspect that such an arrangement was deliberately done by the BJP to keep a tab on all departments by having either a Cabinet Minister or a Minister of State of its own.Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee heading the Railways was the only Minister having a non-BJP Minister of State in Samata Party's Digvijay Singh. But, Prime Minister removed the "discrepancy" by putting a BJP man, Bangaru Laxman as her deputy in addition to Digvijay.Thus, Shiv Sena's Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Suresh Prabhu has Ramesh Bains as his MoS while his colleague the Heavy Industries Minister Manohar Joshi has Vallabhbhai Kathiria as his deputy.Similarly, BJP's Chaman Lal Gupta assists JD (U)'s SharadYadav in handling Civil Aviation Ministry while BJP's former lawyer, O Rajagopal is deputy to independent jurist Ram Jethmalani in Law and Justice Ministry.JD (U)'s Ram Vilas Paswan has BJP's Tapan Sikdar as his MoS in the Communication Ministry while Biju Janata Dal's Naveen Patnaiak has BJP's Rita Varma to assist him in the Ministry of Mines and Minerals. Defence Ministry George Fernandes too has BJP's Hiran Pathak as his deputy.The Environment Minister TR Balu of DMK has BJP's Babu Lal Marandi as his assistant. Even the latest addition to the Union Cabinet, the Works and Estates Minister Sukhdeo Singh Dhindsa of Shiromani Akali Dal too has a BJP man, Bandaru Dattatreya as his deputy.Yesterday's expansion, BJP sources claim, was prompted by pleadings from the BJP leaders itself and not the allies. In his zeal to accommodate allies and BJP cadre in his Cabinet, Vajpayee has put two MoS in four Ministries. Commerce and Industry headed by DMK's Murasoli Maran has Raman (BJP) and Omar Farooq,Agriculture headed by Samata's Nitish Kumar has Hukumdeo Narain Singh (BJP) and SBPPK Satyanarayanan Rao, Petroleum and Natural Gas headed by BJP's Ram Naik has Santosh Gangwar and E Ponnunswami. Railway Minister Mamata Bannerjee too has two deputies.Human Resource Development Ministry headed by Murli Manohar Joshi has the unique distinction of having three Ministers of State: Sumitra Mahajan, Bachi Singh Rawat and Jaisibgh Rao Patil.
