This Article is From May 27, 2009

PM, Sonia call MPs picked for Cabinet

PM, Sonia call MPs picked for Cabinet
New Delhi:

The formation of the new Union Cabinet seems to be nearing its final stages now.

After several meetings over the past few days, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi have finalised the Cabinet berths. They have started calling MPs picked for the Council of Ministers.

These are the main personalities who've got calls:

Sachin Pilot
Shashi Tharoor
Mallikarjun Kharge
K H Munniapa
Virbhadra Singh
Dayanidhi maran
Farooq Abdullah
Ajay Maken
G K Vasan
D Purandeshwari
Pallam Raju
Jiten Prasada
Sri Prakash Jaiswal

Vilasrao Deshmukh will also be inducted.

The next group of ministers will be sworn in on Thursday.

Meanwhile, many other MPs must be waiting for that crucial call, the one that would turn their ministerial dreams into reality. In the last two days while the the jostling over berths was on, ministers lied low. One couldn't imagine what the wait must have been with the mounting suspense about who would be in and who would be out.

C P Joshi, one of the Cabinet members who is yet to get a portfolio says, "I'm a minister now; I would like a certain portfolio but let's see what I get."

Many others are waiting nervously for the portfolios. And then the demands bred by success.

Says Rita Bahuguna, president of UP Congress committee, says: "I have definitely made a request. After so may years we have done well in Uttar Pradesh. We are clear that after our big win in UP we should get at least six ministries."

And there is the need to placate the regional allies.

Says DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran: "We want to contribute to the government."

All these calculations are being factored in and debated at two places. One of them is 10 Janpath. The other is 7 Race Course Road, where in addition to the political considerations the PM will decide the composition of his Cabinet.

But even as Thursday looms, what about the much-vaunted young Turks of the Congress? Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada and Sachin Pilot are hot favourites for ministerial positions.

At most times, the youth brigade is extremely media-savy -- always ready with a smart byte. But these aren't ordinary times. Like many of their senior colleagues, they too are lying low, waiting for that one phone call that could lift them from being MPs to ministers.

So, till Thursday morning for many ministerial hopefuls it is a waiting game.

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