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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, Jan 13: Barely a day after he made it known that he would expand his Cabinet on January 15, pulls and pressures within his coalition forced Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee tonight to put off his plans.
Although the Prime Minister continues to nurture hopes of inducting more ministers before next month8217;s Budget session, BJP circles expressed doubts that he would be able to do so given problems both in his faction-ridden allies and his own party. This is the second time Vajpayee has had to postpone his expansion plans, the first being before the winter session of Parliament.
Defence Minister George Fernandes of the Samata Party is away in Paris so no decision was forthcoming from his party while Biju Janata Dal chief Naveen Patnaik is too busy trying to stave off a revolt in his party to decide on just one nominee, as sought by Vajpayee.
Virtually all the allies face the prospect of a split if the warring factions are not accommodated in the Government by their leaders. But giving in to these demands would mean a jumbo Cabinet a la Kalyan Singh in Uttar Pradesh and Vajpayee has put his foot down on this. He has set a limit of 20 new ministers, of which he is ready to give over 10 to the allies8217; quota.
Mamata has asked for the Railways portfolio in addition to a second Cabinet post, for potential dissident Ajit Panja, and one minister of state berth. Vajpayee is willing to concede only one Cabinet post and one minister of state berth to her party.
The Samata Party is facing similar problems. Abdul Ghafoor has threatened to walk away with one-third of its MPs unless he gets a Cabinet post. Vajpayee has refused on the plea that the Samata Party, with 12 MPs, is entitled to only two Cabinet berths, which it already has, and one additional minister of state berth. Samata8217;s Nitish Kumar has refused to relinquish the Railways portfolio for Mamata.
There are problems within the BJP itself 8212; too many claimants and not enough jobs on offer. There are already 21 Cabinet Ministers in the Government. The accepted limit is 25, which affords Vajpayee only four posts to play around with. He is obviously finding it difficult to juggle the demands pouring in.
