The Hindu : National : Sonia discusses Ministry pruning with Chief Ministers

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Sunday, Jul 04, 2004

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National

Sonia discusses Ministry pruning with Chief Ministers

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 3. The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, today discussed with the Chief Ministers of Assam, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra, the issue of downsizing their Ministries.

The discussions were said to be inconclusive and would continue, senior party leader Ambika Soni said here.

The Assam Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi, discussed the issue of slashing the number of Ministers in his Government from 35 to 19, while in the case of Himachal Pradesh, the Ministers in the Virbhadra Singh Cabinet has to be brought down from 17 to 12.

The deadline for pruning the Council of Ministers is July 7 as per the Constitutional amendment made in December last year. It placed a ceiling on the number of Ministers at 15 per cent of the strength of the legislature. In the case of smaller States, the number was fixed at 12. Earlier, the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde, had a meeting with the Nationalist Congress Party president, Sharad Pawar, on downsizing the Congress-NCP coalition Ministry from the 65 members to 43. The State NCP chief, R.R. Patil, the Deputy Chief Minister, Vijaysinh Mohite Patil, the Union Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel, and Tariq Anwar attended the meeting.

The Punjab Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh, is also in the Capital to discuss the Ministry pruning issue with Ms. Gandhi. He has to axe at least 13 Ministers in order to bring down the number to 17.

Besides these States, the Congress has to downsize Ministries in Manipur and Meghalaya also. Although the Congress Chief Ministers have collected the resignations of all their Ministers, the effort was to ensure an overall balance while carrying out the pruning exercise and also prevent dissent.

The Congress Chief Ministers have been discussing the issue in the party for the past few days, even as several Ministers from various States were camping here and meeting senior party leaders in an effort to retain their berths.

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