Stage set for Govt Act II,no word on actors,script

Sonia Gandhi consulted Pranab Mukherjee,A K Antony and Ahmed Patel at 10,Janpath before driving down to 7,Race Course Rd to discuss ministerial candidates and portfolios with Manmohan Singh.

With hectic lobbying within the Congress for ministerial berths delaying a decision,the expansion of the Council of Ministers was deferred to Thursday. Rashtrapati Bhavan announced that the second round of swearing in of ministers would take place at 11.30 am Thursday.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi consulted senior party leaders Pranab Mukherjee,A K Antony and Ahmed Patel at 10,Janpath before driving down to 7,Race Course Road to discuss ministerial candidates and portfolios with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Even after a three-hour long meeting,the final list for Thursday remained inconclusive. On Monday too,they had held a four-hour meeting.

In 2004,it had taken only 10 days for the 13-party UPA to form the government. Within 24 hours of the swearing-in,portfolios of ministers had been announced. But this time,four days after the swearing-in,portfolios of 13 ministers still remained undecided as lobbying was on for coveted ministries.

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Congress sources said the party leadership wanted to accommodate young faces,good governance,regional balance and representation to states where the party was on revival mode. The first list of ministers sent out a confusing message. Youth was missing from the list, said a senior party leader.

The Congress now realises that aspirants far outnumber the berths available:

The PM is said to be in favour of 30-32 Cabinet Minister and 7-8 Ministers of State with Independent charge.

Excluding the DMK share in the Cabinet,the Congress has only seven to nine Cabinet berths to offer.

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States like Andhra Pradesh,Uttar Pradesh,Gujarat,Orissa were not represented in the first list,barring the lone Andhra induction Jaipal Reddy.

Apart from Jyotiraditya Scindia and Jitin Prasada who are set to take oath Thursday,Sachin Pilot and Priya Dutt are in the reckoning for MoS berths.

From among allies,NCP MP Agatha Sangma is set to become an MoS.

Many senior Congress leaders are not in favour of ministerial berths for first-term MPs names under consideration include Meenakshi Natarajan and Manick Tagore.

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Given the Andhra mandate,the Congress is considering more inductions from the state. While five-term MP K S Rao was said to be a frontrunner for a Cabinet berth,sources said there could be five to six MoS from the state.

Bhakta Charan Das and Srikant Jena are said to be ministerial contenders from Orissa.

From Uttar Pradesh,Salman Khursheed looked set to take oath Thursday. Contenders for MoS berths include Ratna Singh,Sanjay Singh and P L Punia.

n Lal Singh from Jammu and Harish Rawat from Uttarakhand are also in the reckoning.

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Kantilal Bhuria from Madhya Pradesh was said to be a certainty in the Council of Ministers.

From Gujarat,Dinsha Patel and Baharatsinh Solanki were said to be in the race as was Gurudas Kamat from Maharashtra.