October 13: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is likely to go in for a mini Cabinet expansion most probably on Saturday. It is understood that the mini expansion is being done under pressure from deposed Delhi chief minister Sahib Singh Verma and also to contain the Jat backlash.Sources said, about 10 to 15 new ministers, including Verma, are expected to be inducted into the Cabinet as it was felt that it would raise the allies' hackles if only Verma was inducted.Practically confirming the expansion, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) vice-president K L Sharma said this evening that ``vacancies'' in the Union Council of Ministers would be filled ``well before Diwali'' (which is on Monday).While allies would also to be accommodated, most of the new ministers are likely to be from the BJP. Besides Verma, Jaswant Singh and Pramod Mahajan are said to be definite inclusions. Names of Rajnath Singh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh's arch rival, Ramdas Agarwal from Rajasthan and Lakshmi Narain Pandeyfrom Madhya Pradesh are also being mentioned.However, despite the advanced stage of discussions on Cabinet expansion, sources caution that nothing could be taken for granted. Given the nature of the coalition, if allies strongly object to Vajpayee's expansion plan to serve the BJP's convenience, the whole thing could be postponed once more.It is only after Verma made his inclusion a pre-condition for campaigning in the Delhi elections that Vajpayee pre-poned his decision of Cabinet expansion which was actually slated for early December.Verma's supporter Devinder Singh Shaukeen, who was inducted into the Delhi Cabinet today, is believed to have threatened that he would resign on the day of Diwali unless Verma was brought to the Centre before the festival.From the allies, D Srinivasan and Niraikulathan are to be taken from the AIADMK. S Ramachandran (MDMK), Digvijay Singh (Samata Party), Prem Singh Chandumajra (Akali Dal) and P K Samantray (BJD) are also slated to find a berth in the Cabinet,sources said.The Cabinet expansion drama has been going on since August. It was finally scheduled for last Saturday. Discussions were held with all the allies who were in the Capital to attend the Coordination Committee meeting. But at the last minute, the expansion was called off after allies allegedly asked for too many berths.The BJP, too, had so many claimants and it was feared that Cabinet expansion would actually cause more problems than it would solve. And so, it was officially announced that Cabinet expansion would take place only after November 30 (when the Assembly elections in Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh would be over).Though Vajpayee is believed to have assured Sushma Swaraj that her portfolios (Communications and Information and Broadcasting) would be kept vacant in case the BJP was unable to form a government in Delhi again, this may not now be possible now as sources said that Verma is demanding for the high-profile Communications portfolio while I&B may go Pramod Mahajan'sway.
