Uttar Pradesh, which goes to the polls in 2012, and Kerala, where elections are due in May this year, got a big boost in the expansion of the Union Council of Ministers on Wednesday.
Two new Cabinet berths and one post of Minister of State with independent charge went to Uttar Pradesh. Salman Khursheed will be the new Water Resources and Minority Affairs Minister (earlier he was MoS for Minority Affairs). Sriprakash Jaiswal will be the Coal Minister, and Beni Prasad Verma, one of the new entrants, has been given independent charge of the important Ministry of Steel.
The choice of Mr. Verma, who represents the powerful backward caste of Kurmi, should send out a strong message to the Other Backward Classes. However, as Mr. Verma has been a full-fledged Cabinet Minister at the Centre in the past, his inclusion in this manner could dilute the message the party intended to send out to voters in the State.
Kerala, too, gained significantly. Vayalar Ravi got the key Civil Aviation portfolio; K.V. Thomas got upgraded to MoS with independent charge and will preside over the critical Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Ministry; E. Ahmed has become the MoS in the External Affairs Ministry; and the State got additional representation with K.C. Venugopal becoming the MoS for Power.
Kamal Nath, Virbhadra Singh, Murli Deora, B.K. Handique and M.S. Gill all seemed to be ‘downgraded.' Mr. Nath moves from the key infrastructure Ministry of Surface Transport to Urban Development, Mr. Handique has lost the Mines portfolio, retaining only the north east charge and Mr. Gill, whose handling of the Commonwealth Games came in for a great deal of criticism, has been moved from the Youth and Sports Affairs to Statistics and Programme Implementation.
On the other hand, apart from Mr. Jaipal Reddy, Kapil Sibal, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Mr. Ravi, Selja, C.P. Joshi, Ajay Maken and V. Narayanasamy saw their fortunes rise. Mr. Sibal will continue to hold key portfolios of Human Resource Development and Communications and Information Technology while Mr. Deshmukh has been given the big budget and key social sector Ministries of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj and Mr. Ravi gets additional charge of the high-profile Civil Aviation Ministry.
Ms. Selja may have lost Tourism, but it is a measure of the confidence she inspires that she has acquired Culture in addition to her Urban Poverty Alleviation Ministry: it may be recalled that in the year and a half that the United Progressive Alliance government has been in power, the Prime Minister has held charge of the Culture, a portfolio close to the heart of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Mr. Maken has become the MoS with independent charge of the Youth and Sports Ministry. Similarly, Mr. Narayanasamy gets the key MoS slot in the Prime Minister's Office, while continuing with the Personnel and Parliamentary Affairs. Finally, it is curious that Mr. Joshi, whose record in the key Rural Development Ministry was singularly unimpressive, should have been rewarded with the Road Transport and Highways.
Congress sources told The Hindu that the leadership intended to drop a few Ministers, some for inefficiency, and some to strengthen the party organisation. But the leadership, unfortunately, was unable to have its way at this stage. Clearly, it will be difficult to implement, even in small measure, the one-man one-post formula, when the party gets down to appointing party functionaries.
