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Shahid K Abbas In New Delhi
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is optimistic about the induction of Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee into his Cabinet, even as the Bengal satrap boycotted the swearing-in ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Monday, after her demand for the railways portfolio was turned down.
"This cannot be ruled out. All these possibilities are very much there," Vajpayee told newsmen at the tea hosted by the President K R Narayanan, in response to a pointed question if there was any possibility of roping in Mamata Banerjee.
Talking to the press, Defence Minister and Samata Party leader George Fernandes, who is also the convenor of the National Democratic Alliance, said that a short swearing-in ceremony could not be ruled out in the next few days.
"Talks are on and if everything is finalised a short swearing-in ceremony is likely in a few days," Fernandes said.
The newly appointed BJP president Venkaiah Naidu also gave ample indication of his party working out a rapprochement with Banerjee.
"I wish she comes back to the government. She spoke to me today and I told her that her services were very much required in the government," Naidu said.
Banerjee was offered rural development, which she agreed to, provided Nitish Kumar was removed from the railways ministry.
Her contention was in the first case she had resigned after the tehelka.com revelations. While, Fernandes, who also resigned following the revelations, was reinstated in his earlier defence portfolio, she was not offered the rail ministry.
Her second argument was she was willing to accept some other portfolio provided Nitish Kumar was removed from the rail ministry. She attributed her unhappiness with Kumar for his decision to divide the Eastern Railways into two zones by adding East Central Railways into it.
During her two rounds of meetings with the prime minister on Sunday, Banerjee explained that the state of west Bengal would be deprived of revenue once the zone was divided into two, as the division would limit the Eastern Railways up to only Dhanbad, from its current Mughalsarai junction.
She also set a third condition that her party member Ajit Panja should not be inducted in the Cabinet in any case.
According to TMC sources, Banerjee is also faced with a threat of a split in her party as one of her close confidante Sudip Bandopadhya had made it clear to her that in case anyone from her party was sworn in as a minister of state, then it should be him.
Mamata, who has nine Lok Sabha members and over 60 MLAs in West Bengal, is also flexing her muscles in the backdrop of the ensuing Presidential election due later this month.
The Complete Coverage: Cabinet Reshuffle 2002
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