UP Cong MPs await Cabinet announcement

With speculation on who will be the next Prime Minister over, Congress leaders and workers in Uttar Pradesh have now engaged themselves in discussing on who would get a ministerial berth at the Centre from the state where the party has won nine Lok Sabha seats of the total 80.

Though all the Congress MPs from the state have been camping in New Delhi since the results were declared, party leaders in UP are unanimous that one candidate, Mahabir Prasad, should be inducted in the Manmohan Cabinet. Prasad, twice Union minister and former Haryana Governor, is among the frontrunners while second-term Kanpur MP Shree Prakash Jaiswal is the next favourite.

‘‘It depends on the size of the ministry, if it is below 30 (of Congress MPs), there will be only one minister from the state and if it is above 30, the number of ministers from here will be two to three,’’ claimed a senior party functionary.