Jan 25, 1999
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CABINET EXPANSION Take It of Leave It Vajpayee believes he has reaffirmed his authority by deferring a reshuffle in the face of haggling allies. But by the month-end he has to bite the bullet. By Ashok K Damodaran
By the weekend, the prime minister's aides were holding out the hope that the reshuffle would be effected before the end of January. The hope is based on the assumption that Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress and AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalitha, the most vocal of the bargaining allies, would be brought around. But if the jockeying and the bitterness of the past week are any indication, it will take a lot to weaken their resolve. Two weeks ago, Vajpayee's world seemed quite different. He arrived at the BJP's National Executive in Bangalore intending to prove that he was in control. He succeeded to a large extent, taming the Sangh Parivar, forcing his detractors in the party on the backfoot and sending out the message to the outside world that he was his own master. But last week, as the coalition partners bargained hard, Vajpayee appeared to have surrendered the prime ministerial prerogative to choose his own team. His partymen however think otherwise. Says BJP Vice-President and Rajya Sabha member O. Rajagopal: "He has sent out an unambiguous message that pressure tactics will not work." The words sound familiar. For it is not the first time Vajpayee has been hampered in his attempts to reconstruct his cabinet. In October last, a similar attempt failed after Jayalalitha refused to furnish the list of her nominees in protest against Vajpayee's refusal to reallocate portfolios of some ministers belonging to the AIADMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu. This time round, Jayalalitha demanded that her party nominee be handed the petroleum portfolio, being held by Vazhapadi Ramamurthy, an ally until recently. Not to be left behind, Mamata Banerjee said her party would join the Government only if the railway portfolio was given to her. Within the BJP too there was no shortage of claimants, among them were Delhi's last two chief ministers Sushma Swaraj and Sahib Singh Verma, one jobless and the other reliving the life of a college librarian. For Vajpayee, these were tall orders. While he was confident of dealing with aspirants from his own party, he was not sure how he would tackle the two formidable women. On Wednesday evening, he sat down to a meeting with BJP President Kushabhau Thakre and Home Minister L.K. Advani to discuss how they could be brought around. Between the two, it was Mamata who proved to be a tougher nut. She could not be contacted for long and when tracked on her cell phone, she said she was in the midst of a meeting with her party's working committee. But the message, as one source said, was unmistakable: "No railways, no cabinet." She was asking for too much. Railways is currently held by Nitish Kumar of the Samata Party, among the few ministers in the Cabinet who is not shrouded in controversy. Defence Minister George Fernandes' high profile notwithstanding, Vajpayee knows that in the Samata Party which is largely confined to Bihar it is Kumar who matters as far as the BJP's long-term plans for the state are concerned. The prime minister made it clear that he would not shunt Kumar. The conflicting demands within the Samata itself over a proposed additional berth for the party -- Abdul Ghafoor and Digvijay Singh had eyes on the berth -- perhaps made it easier for Vajpayee to put off the exercise. At the same time, Vajpayee is understood to have agreed to Jayalalitha's demand for the petroleum portfolio and Ramamurthy was reportedly satisfied with the promised "promotion". However, the minister had one request: that he should not be relocated until January 18, his shashtithapoorthi (60th birthday). The gala celebrations that Ramamurthy planned will thus go ahead as scheduled, though the minister knows that he has to move soon. Despite critics carping about the "newly assertive Vajpayee shying away from tough decisions", his aides say the cabinet expansion will take place sooner than later. This time, it is unlikely to be preceded by a grand announcement. |
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Prime ministers are
normally known to keep plans about reshuffling their cabinets close to their chest for
fear of needlessly ruffling feathers. By that yardstick Atal Bihari Vajpayee's statement
in Lucknow last Tuesday that he would be inducting a few new faces into his Council of
Ministers was a departure from convention. It took less than 24 hours for him to realise
that it doesn't pay to be candid. Intense bargaining by allies and lobbying within the BJP
ensured that Vajpayee put his plans on hold. On Wednesday, two days before the scheduled
expansion, journalists listened incredulously as an official spokesman tersely stated that
"the prime minister was busy till Republic Day and the cabinet expansion has
therefore been deferred". 
