Bargaining chip

To keep him out of Defence, the carrot dangled by the Congress was raising his party’s representation in the council of ministers to eight. He was offered the ‘‘light-weight’’ Railways. The deal was brokered late last night after intervention of ex-PM V.P. Singh. And the last man inducted from RJD was Akhilesh Singh.

Similar is the case of the Nationalist Congress Party. Sharad Pawar agreed to back down on Defence just because his party was given more weight. An additional minister of state, Suryakanta Patil.

Pawar is likely to get a two-in-one: Food with Agriculture. Praful Patel has been upgraded with independent charge as compared to a mere Minister of State.

DMK too has been given a bonus with an additional Cabinet rank for leaving it on to the Congress to decide on the portfolios. Dayanidhi Maran, a newcomer, was earlier proposed by Congress as Minister of State in a key ministry. He now gets Cabinet rank.

The only party that has not had its say is the Lok Janshakti Party whose leader Ram Vilas Paswan had asked for Railways. His loss is likely to compensated by giving ministry of Health with Chemical carved out of the Ministry of Chemical and Fertilisers.

Another platitude in the offing for Paswan is a Minister of State rank which could either go to his brother Ram Chander Paswan or controversial Pappu Yadav’s wife Ranjita Ranjan.

Though this ‘‘compromise formula’’ of the Congress has helped it put together the ministries today, it has led to heart-burn among partymen. Members of the Lok Sabha are questioning the wisdom of filling the first rung of the government with members of the Rajya Sabha like Arjun Singh, Natwar Singh, etc.

They are also questioning if the Congress leadership’s promise of ‘‘giving a chance to the next generation of leadereship’’ has been washed off by compulsions of the coalition government.