PM rejects allies8217; demand

NEW DELHI, October 8: Prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee tonight was forced to call off the long-awaited expansion of his Cabinet primar...

NEW DELHI, October 8: Prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee tonight was forced to call off the long-awaited expansion of his Cabinet primarily because of the untenable demands of allies. Earlier slated for Saturday, Cabinet expansion will now take place only after the November Assembly elections.

Vajpayee apparently developed cold feet after major allies demanded two more berths each, while he was willing to give only one as he was anxious to keep the Cabinet strength -currently 46-below 74 the highest number, during the Narasimha Rao regime. Besides allies, Vajpayee also had to contend with the need to accommodate his own BJP MPs.

Sources said that during their meetings with the PM today, the Akali Dal, Samata Party, Biju Janata Dal and the AIADMK all insisted that they should be given not one but two more ministerial berths. Compounding the problem was portfolio distribution. AIADMK chief J Jayalalitha, for instance, is said to have insisted, at her meeting with Vajpayee today, that Petroleum Minister VRamamurthy be shifted and the portfolio be given to her own party MP.

The MDMK, Haryana Lok Dal and Haryana Vikas Party were also keen to come on board and were asking for one minister each. Sources said that major allies all projected an extra ministerial berth as the solution to their internal party problems.

In fact, it is possible that except for the AIADMK, parties like the Akali Dal, Samata and BJDwhich have a host of ministerial aspirantswill not be unhappy that Cabinet expansion has been deferred since it would have created more problems in their parties than it would have solved.

Another factor that weighed with Vajpayee was that accommodating the allies8217; demands could only be at the cost of the BJP. Until now, the party has succeeded in reining in the aspirations of several of its senior MPs with the promise of Cabinet inclusion later.

A full-scale expansion would have led to such disaffection that it would have affected the BJP8217;s performance in the Assembly elections in Delhi, Rajasthan andMadhya Pradesh 8212; something it simply cannot afford at this juncture. Moreover, the BJP was keen to retain enough elbow room in case it has to accommodate more leaders after the Assembly elections, particularly as it is not expected to perform well in Delhi and Rajasthan where it is in power.