Jaswant for finance, Advani may get home

However, the proposed Vajpayee cabinet will take final shape only after the ongoing negotiations with Jayalalitha, Mamata Banerjee and Chandrababu Naidu to join the government reach a conclusion. Although the BJP is keen to retain the four core portfolios of home, finance, defence and external affairs, party sources said that the distribution ultimately hinges on whether these leaders are ready to participate in a BJP-led coalition or not.

Advani’s name was doing the rounds ashome minister, traditionally the number two job in the government, through the election campaign.

Singh was the Finance Minister in the 13-day government but after he lost his Lok Sabha seat, he was widely thought to be out of the running for a cabinet post. Party insiders pooh-poohed this handicap, pointing out that he could always be brought in via the Rajya Sabha if a decision is taken to induct him into the cabinet.

At one point, the BJP was toying with the idea of going in for a technocrat finance minister, given the heavy economic agenda ahead for the new government. However, the party is believed to be under pressure from Indian industry which apparently favours a political man to head the ministry.

The industrialists’ lobby is believed to have conveyed to BJP leaders that since many of the decisions which have to be taken by the next finance minister are political in nature, the ministry requires a man with the skills to build a political consensus, both within the country and outside.

Otherswho are in the reckoning for berths in the Council of Ministers are Sushma Swaraj and Anantkumar.

The one certainty is that the cabinet will have strong representation from the South this time. The 13-day Vajpayee Government was severely criticised for its northern bias. Given the regional spread of the BJP’s electoral successes, the party is in a position to give its cabinet a pan Indian profile which it hopes will erase its north Indian image.