Saturday, Sep 20, 2003
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New Delhi
By Our Staff Reporter
According to insiders, the party has come to the view that inducting a new face into the Cabinet would only rake up a fresh controversy, which it could ill-afford at a time when the Delhi Assembly elections are hardly two months away. It is learnt that the matter had been discussed between senior party leaders and the Chief Minister and it had been decided in principle not to appoint a sixth Minister in place of Bandhu. Instead, a simple re-allocation exercise is expected to be carried out by Ms. Dikshit to distribute the departments handled by her former colleague among the other members of Council of Ministers. But this has not deterred the various factions including MLAs from lobbying for the post of the Minister. Many of them see it as an opportunity to revive their sagging political fortunes as it would give them some hope of convincing the people in their constituencies that if elected next time, they would do some good work in this capacity. It is understood that a demand has been made to the Chief Minister and the party leadership that in case of a fresh Cabinet expansion, a Jat should only replace Bandhu. The former Minister was a well-known and respected Jat leader and many within this community and party feel that only a Jat should replace him. The party has at present four Jat MLA including the Deputy Speaker, Vidhan Sabha, Kiran Chaudhary, Model Town MLA, Kanwar Karan Singh, R.K. Puram MLA, Ashok Singh and the former Minister, Yoganand Shastri, who is considered the front-runner after having got a clean chit from the Lok Ayukta. But here the party is encountered with another problem, which has made it a bit jittery on the expansion plans. The Bania community has also staked its claim for getting its representative into the Delhi Cabinet and it is understood the high command as well as the Chief Minister has been petitioned in this regard. As such the Bania community has been crying foul that they have not got adequate representation in the Delhi Cabinet after their only representative, Narendra Nath, was ousted in the last expansion. This community, which has a large hold and vote bank, has been feeling aggrieved since then and is believed to have now upped the ante for induction of their representative in case of an expansion. Those in the running include Mr. Nath and the Chief Whip in the Delhi Assembly, Mangat Ram Singhal, who commands a lot of respect within his community. All these calculations seem to have made the party high command and the Chief Minister all the more determined to go ahead with the expansion, as it would lead to similar demands from other sections and finally ends up with fresh controversies. The party is of the opinion that keeping view that Assembly polls are hardly two months away, it would be better to wait and watch for the outcome of the polls. It is felt that with a vacancy in the Cabinet, there would be more keenness on part of the various political heads including elected representatives to put in their best and come out with flying colours in order to stake their claim to fame.
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