President Pratibha Devisingh Patil has accepted A. Raja's resignation as Communications and Information Technology Minister on the recommendation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with immediate effect, a Rashtrapati Bhavan communiqué said on Monday.
An immediate expansion of the Cabinet is unlikely, as the vacant Ministries have now been handed over to some other Ministers. This arrangement is meant to ensure the smooth functioning of the government, especially during the ongoing session of Parliament. A mid-session Cabinet reshuffle is not expected.
However, for some time, there has been talk of a mid-term appraisal and a Cabinet re-shuffle. Besides the vacancies caused by the exit of Mr. Raja and Mr. Chavan, there is one caused by the resignation of Shashi Tharoor as Minister of State for External Affairs.
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Stop-gap: Baalu
Meanwhile, DMK Parliamentary Party leader T.R. Baalu told journalists here that the new arrangement in the Communications and IT Ministry was “stop-gap,” as party chief M. Karunanidhi was yet to choose Mr. Raja's successor. “No one has any say on the issue except the Prime Minister. As such, our leader [Mr. Karunanidhi] has not given any name … to the Prime Minister.”
Mr. Baalu said it was 100 per cent the prerogative of the Prime Minister to allot vacant portfolios. “The DMK has three Cabinet slots in the UPA government, and with the exit of Mr. Raja, one slot is vacant. Our leader will take a decision on the successor [of Mr. Raja] after consultations with senior party leaders and then convey the name to the Prime Minister.”
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