Portfolios in the air,Cong top brass wait for phone to ring

Mallikarjun Kharge,the 67-year-old Karnataka leader and a prominent Dalit face,claims to have contested because he was told he would be suitably rewarded. He stepped down as Leader of Opposition in the Assembly,but the post has not been filled yet the state leadership awaits his fate at the Centre first.

With S M Krishna and Veerappa Moily already being inducted in the first batch,Kharge called up a Congress general secretary to inquire whether he should give up on the Bangalore post since his future in Delhi was uncertain and he had received no phone call.

Kapil Sibal,Kamal Nath and Moily are chief stars of every ministry speculator,having been assigned almost every important ministry below Raisina Hill. Kamal Nath,who was hoping to go up the Hill,is now slightly disappointed and is learnt to have held lengthy meetings with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee but came out with no firm answer. In fact,at one point,Defence Ministry mandarins had the bio-data of both A K Antony and Kamal Nath ready while the suspense was on.

Berths now being tossed around between the three are Law,Commerce,Roads,Shipping and Transport,Human Resource Development,even Environment and Forests. While Kamal Nath is said to be not so keen to return to his old beat despite the persuasion,Sibal makes no bones about the fact that he will not accept the Law portfolio.

Moily,incidentally,has no such preference but does not particularly like being in the dark. I am more eager than you to know what is my ministry,but no phone call has come, he said.

No phone call is also the problem of some of the allies who are expecting to take oath tomorrow under the quota system agreed with the Congress. But the inconclusive four-hour meeting between Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have only frayed nerves further. It was said after the meeting that Tuesdays swearing-in was still not a certainty and call would be taken after another meeting tomorrow between the two.

DMK aspirants are trooping in to Delhi but when he was asked whether he was taking the IT ministry,A Raja,a certain minister,said: Have they released it yet,I have received no phone call.

Prithviraj Chavan,MoS in the outgoing government,was slated for an upgrade. Despite being in-charge of PMO,he too awaits the phone call. In the meantime,he continues to receive calls from other aspirants.

Then there are some like H R Bhardwaj,who never received the phone call last week,and suddenly swung into action,realising that he could not take matters for granted. His hectic lobbying has only complicated plans of the Congress leadership. He knows it. Asked,he only smiled,suggesting that he is possibly in with a chance.

Pawan Kumar Bansal,also MoS in the last government,was hoping for an upgrade,maybe even independent charge. But by this evening,even he was wondering why there had been no phone call. On the tenterhooks are a host of other MPs who had calculated their chances by the logic of state representation. With eight Rajya Sabha members already inducted last Friday,these calculation have all gone awry.

The atmosphere is such that even an innocuous development gives rise to one speculation or the other. The Urban Development Ministry,held by S Jaipal Reddy in the outgoing government,was abuzz with a similar speculation today with reports that some staff of Kumar Selja,a Minister of State with independent charge in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation which is housed in the same building,had come to check out office space. Reddys name is doing the rounds for several ministries while his colleagues from Andhra Pradesh eagerly await the call. With 33 MPs,they hope to secure quite a few,especially in the context of the DMK deal.

Anand Sharmas elevation has left the lone Lok Sabha MP from Himachal Pradesh Veerbhadra Singh quite anxious. First-time winner CP Joshis induction has also had many among the other 20 MPs elected from Rajasthan wondering whether they had a chance at all.

Much of this fight is playing out in the selection process for MoS candidates. MPs from UP say they should at least get six MoS berths for their creditable performance. Until now,no minister has been inducted from UP.

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi is also said to be preparing a list of young talent who should be considered for MoS posts. But the one line,again,from this brigade of aspirants is: No phone call yet. Some even say,Keep us posted.