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UPA’s first major test on June 10

	May 31, 2004

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government will face its first big test on June 10 when the motion of thanks to the President for his joint address to Parliament is put to vote. In the first Cabinet meeting presided by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday ( May 23), the new government decided to convene the first session of the 14th Lok Sabha on June 2.



Portfolio allocation

The composition of the Council of Ministers was a testimony to the Prime Minister’s adroitness in striking a balance between the imperatives of effective governance and the compulsions of accommodating the various demands of the regional parties. The entire exercise suggested that on the control of key Ministries, the Prime Minister and the Congress have been able to prevail over smaller allies.

With a strength of 68 and the accommodation of virtually all the political heavyweights, Ministry-making is more or less complete. The Prime Minister can appoint only about a dozen more Ministers; with the enactment of the 91st Constitution Amendment, the size of the Union Ministry cannot exceed 15 per cent of the Lok Sabha. The new team has several heavyweights, a reward for the loyal old guard, such as Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh, P. Chidambaram, Natwar Singh, as well as Jaipal Reddy, Kamal Nath, and Ghulam Nabi Azad, among the later loyalists.

A surprise appointment was Pranab Mukherjee as Defence Minister. Arjun Singh was keen to stop Pranab Mukherjee from getting the powerful No 2 Home portfolio as he got only the HRD Ministry, but in the process helped the defeated Shivraj Patil to get the key post. When P. Chidambaram was inducted into the Cabnet, the general speculation was that he would get Commerce as the Prime Minister was expected to retain Finance at least till the presentation of the budget some time in July. Surprisingly, Chidambaram was finally given the all important Finance portfolio, though he is yet to join the Congress formally. But no one questioned the ability of the former reforms-friendly Finance Minister to handle the portfolio and the markets initally reacted positively to the development. Chidambaram was Manmohan’s 1991 economic reforms partner, for the job. The idea was to send out the right signals to the business community at home and abroad on the future course of the economic reforms, now that the Disinvestment Ministry has been dismantled.

Natwar Singh had no problem in taking over as External Affairs minister as there were no other contenders. Outside the key portfolios, perhaps the most weighty assignment went to Sharad Pawar as he has been assigned to look after the agriculture sector.

The hardest bargainers were the DMK and the RJD with a substantial number of MPs in their kitty. Even at the risk of annoying his pre-poll partner, Ram Vilas Paswan of the Lok Janashakti Party, RJD’s Laloo Yadav snatched the Railways portfolio for himself and got plum posts for his nominees, some of them facing chargesheets. The allotment of Parliamentary Affairs and Urban development to party strategist Ghulam Nabi Azad and Information and Broadcasting to Jaipal Reddy, who had been the main party spokesman to attack the Vajpayee government, was on expected lines. NCP’s spokesman Praful Patel got charge of Civil Aviation.

Other important portfolios were : Hans Raj Bhardwaj (Law and Justice); Kamal Nath (Commerce and Industry); Priyaranjan Dasmunshi (Water Resources); Mani Shankar Aiyar (Petroleum and Natural Gas, and Panchayati Raj); Shankersinh Vaghela (Textiles), Dayanidhi Maran (Communication and Information Technology), Anbumani Ramadoss (Health and Family Welfare), P.M. Sayeed (Power). Prithviraj Chavan will be a Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office.

There was considerable resentment among the Congress MPs over, what one of them termed, “over-representation of the old faded brigade.” The feelings were particularly high about the inclusion of “non-MPs” Shivraj Patil, P.M. Sayeed (both lost the Lok Sabha election) and Oscar Fernandes (whose term in the Rajya Sabha ended in April last).

Manmohan Singh Prime Minister



Cabinet ministers

P. Chidambaram Finance

Pranab Mukherjee Defence

Arjun Singh HRD

Sharad Pawar Agriculture, Food and Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution

Laloo Prasad Yadav Railways

Shivraj Patil Home

Ram Vilas Paswan Chemicals and Fertilisers, Steel

Ghulam Nabi Azad Parliamentary Affairs, Urban Development

S. Jaipal Reddy I&B, Culture

Sis Ram Ola Labour and Employment

Mahavir Prasad Small Scale, Agro and Rural

P.R. Kyndiah Tribal affairs, Development of NE

T.R. Baalu Road Transport and Highways and Shipping

Shankersinh Vaghela Textiles

Natwar Singh External Affairs

Kamal Nath Commerce and Industry

H.R. Bhardwaj Law and Justice

P.M. Sayeed Power

Raghuvansh Prasad Singh Rural Development

P.R. Dasmunsi Water Resources

Mani Shankar Aiyar Petroleum and Natural gas, Panchayati Raj

Sunil Dutt Youth Affairs and Sports

Shibu Soren Coal, minies and minerals

A. Raja Environment and Forest

Dayanidhi Maran Communication and IT

Meira Kumar Social Justice and Empowerment

K Chandra Shekar Rao Without portfolio

Anbumani Ramadoss Health and Family Welfare

Ministers of State

E. Ahmed External Affairs

Suresh Pachauri Personnel, Parliamentary Affairs

B.K. Handique Defence, Parliamentary Affairs

P. Lakshmi Health and Family Welfare

Dasari Narayan Rao Coal and Mines

Shaqeel Ahmed Communications & IT

Rao Indrajit Singh External Affairs

Naranbhai Rathwa Railways

Rehman Khan Chemicals and Fertilizers

K.H. Muniappa Road Transport and Highways

M.V. Rajashekharan Planning

Kantilal Bhuria Agriculture, food and civil supplies, consumer affairs and public distribution

Manik Rao Gavit Home Affairs

Sri Prakash Jaiswal Home Affairs

Prithviraj Chavan Prime Ministers Office

Taslimuddin Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises

Suryakanta Patil Rural Development, Parliamentary Affairs

Md. A.A. Fatmi HRD

A. Narendra Rural development

R. Velu Railways

S.S. Palanimanikkam Revenue

S. Regupathy Home Affairs

K. Venkatapathy Law and Justice

S. Jagadeesan Social Justice and Empowerment

E.V.K. S. Elangovan Petroleum and Natural Gas

Kanti Singh HRD

N. Narayan Meena Environment and Forests

Jayaprakash Narayan Yadav Water resources

Akhilesh Singh Agriculture, food and civil supplies, consumer affairs and public distribution

Independent charge

Santosh Mohan Deb Heavy industries and Public Enterprises

Jagdish Tytler Non-Resident Affairs

Oscar Fernandes Statistics and programme implementation

Renuka Choudhury Tourism

Subodh Kant Sahay Food Processing

Kapil Sibal Science and Technology, Ocean Development

Vilas Muttemwar Non-conventional energy sources

Kumari Selja Urban employment and Poverty alleviation

Praful Patel Civil Aviation

Prem Chand Gupta Company Affairs