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BJP bosses okay Cabinet rebuild

George Iype in Bangalore

Armed with the approval of the Bharatiya Janata Party National Executive Committee, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will expand his council of ministers before January 15.

BJP sources said Vajpayee is likely to induct some 25 new faces, thus giving representation to all his allies.

The much-awaited full-scale expansion is the first package that the prime minister will offer his coalition partners, some of whom have often criticised him, and even threatened, to pull out of the government.

The expansion is also aimed at giving wider representation to the BJP, as some of the party's senior politicians in various states have complained of being left out.

The party's biggest ally, the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, is expected to get at least three more berths. Other partners like the Shiromani Akali Dal, Samata Party, and Biju Janata Dal will get two each.

Incidentally, the SAD, Samata Party and BJD had demanded immediate expansion to stop the increasing infighting in their respective state units in Punjab, Bihar and Orissa.

The Vajpayee ministry's current strength is 43. In a move that surprised the Sangh Parivar, the prime minister had inducted three ministers -- Jaswant Singh, Pramod Mahajan, and Jagmohan -- during the winter session of Parliament last month.

On Saturday, the prime minister discussed the Cabinet expansion plan with party president Shashikant 'Kushabhau' Thakre during the national executive meeting. He is learnt to have asked Thakre for a list of party nominees to be included in the ministry.

The BJP leadership is preparing a list of at least 15 candidates. They include Karnataka politicians Dhananjaya Kumar and S Mallikarjunaiah, who have been dissatisfied after a relatively junior party nominee from the state, Ananth Kumar, was inducted as civil aviation minister last year.

Rajya Sabha member and senior BJP leader from Kerala O Rajagopal and Dhanbad MP Rita Verma, whose name was proposed as Lok Sabha deputy speaker, are also tipped to get in.

Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani has expressed his desire to take Rajagopal as his minister of state. Rajagopal is well-informed about the activities of fundamentalist groups and Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence.

The BJP leadership is reportedly unhappy with the performance of some of its ministers. It is likely to ask Vajpayee to either sack them or shift them to relatively unimportant portfolios. It will also ask him to elevate Minister of State for Railways and senior party politician Ram Naik to Cabinet status.

In all likelihood, the prime minister will shift Minister of State for Human Resource Development Uma Bharti to a portfolio with independent charge. Bharti has told Vajpayee that she is unhappy working with HRD Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi. She has not attended office for the past two months.

Sushma Swaraj, who was information and broadcasting minister before being sent back to Delhi as chief minister, seems to be out of the race. The BJP leadership has suggested that none of the Delhi politicians should be included, citing their poor performance in the state election.

Already there are two ministers at the Centre from Delhi -- Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madan Lal Khurana and Communications Minister Jagmohan.

When he was removed as chief minister, Vajpayee had promised to induct Sahib Singh Verma as Cabinet minister. But given the changed political situation, it is unlikely to happen.

"I am a loyal party worker. It is up to the prime minister to decide whether to induct me. But I had been told by the prime minister that he would include me in the Cabinet when I resigned as chief minister," a still hopeful Verma told Rediff On The NeT.

He said he had submitted his version of the party's poor performance to the party's national executive. "It is for the prime minister to decide whether to link the party's performance with my inclusion in the Cabinet," he said.

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