The Congress high command today made it clear to senior party leader from Kerala K. Karunakaran that there would be no expansion of the cabinet ‘‘for the time being.’’The Kerala Assembly session is expected to start from June 16 and would end in the last week of August. ‘‘There cannot be changes in the Cabinet while the session is on. Also, changes of ministerial portfolios cannot be restricted to Congress alone,’’ a senior state leader said.The Congress in Kerala is in the United Democratic Front (UDF) coalition which has the support of seven parties and an independent. ‘‘When a reshuffle is considered, the leading party like us has to think of the coalition partners,’’ he added.During the recent fiasco when a rebel candidate was supported by Karunakaran for Rajya Sabha elections, one of his loyalists, Tourism Minister K.V. Thomas, had shifted to Chief Minister A.K. Antony camp.Karunakaran group was promised three portfolios at the time of government-formation and Thomas was one of the three.Karunakaran has since been arguing that as Thomas had shifted sides, one more candidate from his own camp should be made a minister.Pushing for the Cabinet expansion the dissidents camp had threatened to come out with a memorandum signed by 24 MLAs and three MPs of the state, terming the Antony government as a failure and seeking it to be replaced.Karunakaran has been claiming the support of 24 MLAs in the House, where the Congress has 62, and having 21 MLAs would split in the party. That has been a fear which had prevented the party high command from taking any decisive action against Karunakaran at the time of the Rajya Sabha elections.The memorandum, which would have been detrimental for Antony and the UDF, was scheduled to be submitted today to AICC in-charge of the state Ahmed Patel.However, according to KPCC sources, while Patel held a meeting today with the Chief Minister, Karunakaran and his son K. Muraleedharan, who is also the KPCC president, no memorandum was submitted.Antony had mentioned about a month ago that there would be changes in the cabinet and that the present ministry is ‘‘not final.’’Also on the anvil is the change of the Finance Minister Shanker Narayan, a post that is expected to go to senior leader and convenor of the UDF coalition Oomen Chandy. Chandy, like Thomas, is a Latin Catholic, and Antony would have to balance all sects and castes proportionally in his cabinet.Karunakaran camp at the moment holds the portfolios of Health and Power. It is believed that he is pushing for his daughter, Padmaja, for a cabinet berth.
