After the latest reshuffle, the
South has much to cheer about — 31 of the 77 Ministers (excluding Prime
Minister) in the Union Cabinet are from the region.
Of them, 13 belonged to
Andhra Pradesh, eight from Kerala, five from Karnataka, four from Tamil Nadu
and one from Puducherry. While A.P. has the highest number of five Cabinet
Ministers, Karnataka has four and T.N. and Kerala have two each.
In the poll-bound Andhra
Pradesh, every fourth MP of the Congress, either elected to the Lok Sabha or
the Rajya Sabha, is now a Union Minister. The State tops the list of getting
the highest number of 13 Ministers in the council.
In Karnataka, where the
Congress had recently won the Assembly polls, every second MP belonging to the
party is a Minister now with five of the 10 MPs (seven from the Lok Sabha and
three from the Rajya Sabha) being in the Cabinet.
The luck for the Congress MPs
from Tamil Nadu is also not bad as every third Congress MP from the State is a
Minister. Of course, this has come at the cost of the DMK, which quit the UPA-II
government on the Sri Lankan issue a few months ago. Of the Congress MPs, two
are already holding the Cabinet rank.
Given the fluid situation in
Andhra Pradesh — with Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy set to pose great challenges to the
Congress in the Assembly/Lok Sabha polls from the Seemandhra region and the
Telangana Rashtra Samithi issuing threats in the problematic Telangana region —
as many as 13 out of 44 Congress MPs (31 in the Lok Sabha and 13 in the Rajya
Sabha) have been made Ministers. Of them five — S. Jaipal Reddy, Kishore
Chandra Deo, M.M. Pallam Raju, K.S. Rao and Jairam Ramesh (elected from A.P. to
the Rajya Sabha) — are Cabinet Ministers. While actor-politician K. Chiranjeevi
is already enjoying the Minister of State with independent charge status, there
are seven MoS: D. Purandeswari, Panabaka Lakshmi, Sarvey Satyanarayana, K. Surya
Prakash Reddy, P. Balram Naik, Killi Krupa Rani and J.D. Seelam. While Mr. Jaipal
Reddy, Mr. Satyanarayana and Mr. Naik are from the Telangana region, Mr. Surya
Prakash Reddy represents Rayalaseema and the remaining are from Coastal Andhra
Pradesh.
With the Seemandhra region
getting more representation in the Union Council, sources said the balancing
act made by the Congress high command might help it to arrest the exodus to the
YSR Party prior to the polls. It may be noted that Mr. K.S. Rao had submitted
his resignation to the high command when he failed to a find place in the
Cabinet during the previous reshuffle.
In Tamil Nadu, the Congress
has only 12 MPs (eight in the Lok Sabha and four in the Rajya Sabha — one is
retiring next month). Of them, four are enjoying berths in the Cabinet — P. Chidambaram,
G.K. Vasan, Jayanthi Natarajan and E.M. Sudarsana Natchiappan.
In Karnataka, the victory of
the Congress in the recent Assembly poll has brought favours to the State
leaders with Mallikarjun Kharge getting the plum Railway portfolio and Oscar
Fernandes being inducted as another Cabinet minister. M. Veerappa Moily and K. Rahman
Khan are the other Cabinet ministers. From Karnataka, the Congress has seven
members in the Lok Sabha and three in the Rajya Sabha and five of them, including
K.H. Muniyappa, are already inducted into the Cabinet.
As the Congress prepares for
the 16th Lok Sabha poll, indications are that it is depending too much on the
southern States. Kerala is not lagging behind as seven of its MPs are in the
Cabinet. Besides, one berth has been given to its ally, the Muslim League (E. Ahamed).
While A.K. Antony and Vayalar Ravi are enjoying the Cabinet rank, K.V. Thomas
is the MoS with independent charge. Mullapally Ramachandran, K.C. Venugopal, E.
Ahamed, Shashi Tharoor and K. Suresh are the MoS.
In Kerala, there are 13 Lok
Sabha and three Rajya Sabha members from the Congress. The Kerala Congress (Mani)
group has one member in both the Houses and the IUML has two members in the
Lower House. Both the IUML and the KC(M) are the allies of the party in Kerala.
Puducherry is represented by
MoS V. Narayanasamy.
Related Links:-
No comments:
Post a Comment