Tilts in Congs balancing act

With personalities seemingly becoming an important factor in the allocation of ministerial berths,the new Union Council of Ministers reflected imbalance in terms of the representation of states.

While Maharashtra,where the Congress and the NCP together got 25 seats,will end up with nine ministerial berths,including five in the Cabinet,Uttar Pradesh where the Congress won 21 seats will have just five ministerial berths with no representation in the Cabinet.

On the other hand,from Karnataka,where the Congress tally came down from nine MPs in 2004 to six in 2009,there were four ministers,including three in the CabinetS M Krishna,Veerappa Moily and Mallikarjun Kharge. There was,however,only one minister from Haryana where the Congress won nine seats.

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The Congress must have routed the Left in Kerala,but in terms of Cabinet representation the party opted for Rajya Sabha members including A K Antony and Vayalar Ravi. There will be four Ministers of State from Kerala though,including one from ally Muslim League.

Orissa and Gujarat will however have no representation in the Cabinet. Gujarat will have to suffice with one MoS (Independent charge) in Dinsha Patel plus three other Ministers of State. Srikant Jena,Orissas lone representative in the Council of Ministers,is also said to be sulking as the former Cabinet Minister will now be an MoS.

The Northeastern states together will have just three berths B K Handique from Assam in the Cabinet and Agatha Sangma and Vincent Pala from Meghalaya as MoS.

With the inclusion of Farooq Abdullah in the Union Cabinet,Jammu & Kashmir will get two representatives,the other being Ghulam Nabi Azad. A section of the party is now concerned about the absence of any Hindu representative from the state in the Council of Ministers.

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There are two Cabinet Ministers from Himachal Pradesh Virbhadra Singh and Anand Sharmathough the Congress won just one Lok Sabha seat in the state.

With Jharkhand looking set for snap polls,Subodhkant Sahay,the lone party MP from the state,has been elevated to the Cabinet.

Meanwhile,some Congress chief ministers were said to have reservations about the selection of ministerial candidates. Kumari Selja,who was elevated to the Cabinet and who was the lone representative from Haryana,is not known to have great equations with CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Similarly,first-term MP from Rajasthan C P Joshi,who was given a Cabinet berth,is not in the good books of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Vilasrao Deshmukhs inclusion in the Cabinet is also likely to cause discomfort to CM Ashok Chavan who is no longer in the best of terms with his predecessor.