Jobs for the boys

Getting the numbers to form a government in Uttar Pradesh was a piece of cake for Mulayam Singh Yadav compared to portfolio allotment. His c...

Getting the numbers to form a government in Uttar Pradesh was a piece of cake for Mulayam Singh Yadav compared to portfolio allotment. His core cabinet of six remains jobless more than a month after being sworn in while he juggles their demands. Now he’s added to his troubles by inducting another 90-odd ministers, some of them quite capable of upsetting Lucknow’s precarious political equations if they don’t get their share of the pickings.

Kalyan Singh is insisting on Urban Development for confidante Kusum Rai and the Public Works Department for son Rajvir Singh. But PWD used to be with Ajit Singh’s friend Anuradha Chaudhary when she was part of Mayawati’s government. She is staking her claim again. Another Ajit loyalist, Kokab Hamid, also wants his old job back, in the Ministry of Rural Electrification.

Mulayam man Azam Khan has his eyes on Energy, which was Naresh Agarwal’s portfolio in the Rajnath Singh government before Agarwal was sacked following allegations of corruption. He now wants the portfolio back. Meanwhile, Mulayam’s brother Shivpal Yadav is pitching for excise.

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What these portfolios have in common is that they are considered ‘‘lucrative’’ because of the financial clout they wield. Mulayam is adamant on retaining the powerful home and finance ministries, leaving limited room to satisfy allies.

Talking in many voices

Madhya Pradesh seems to be attracting the unlikeliest of campaigners for the BJP. There’s Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, whose vocabulary makes him incomprehensible at the best of times. He was roped in to address a public rally in Indore. So was Vijay Goel. Although better known in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk from where he was elected to the Lok Sabha, he’s obviously trying to build a larger profile.

Next week, Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie is off to Bhopal. Fortunately, he’ll be doing what he’s best at — speaking at a seminar on privatisation. Then there’s Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Nagmani, RJD rebel from Bihar and not even a member of the BJP. The caste factor is at play here. Nagmani is a Koeri; his caste has a small but significant presence in Madhya Pradesh. He is so excited at the prospect of going national that he’s studying the caste map of Madhya Pradesh to locate constituencies he can visit. Quite motley crew for a state that’s used to the oratory of Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Chair, chair everywhere…

The new Minister of State for Heavy Industry, Santosh Gangwar, is miserable these days. He’s laid up at home with a broken leg after a lift accident in Bareilly, his Lok Sabha constituency. But there’s more to his enforced rest at home than the plaster on his leg. He doesn’t have an office to go to. The room in Udyog Bhavan his predecessor Vallabhai Patel sat in, has been taken over by Minister for Rural and Agro Industries Sangh Priya Gautam. It’s been one month and all Gangwar has been able to wangle in Udyog Bhavan is space for his PS.

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The episode speaks for the space crunch in government buildings in this era of coalitions and jumbo ministries. For lack of a suitable room, Gautam used to sit in Krishi Bhavan, although his ministry was in Udyog Bhavan. When Patel was moved to the HRD Ministry, Gautam pulled rank as a cabinet minister and grabbed the vacant room, leaving Gangwar to sulk. Just for the record, this was Gangwar’s fifth portfolio change in four years.