Winners and losers from the Cabinet rejig

Cong’s woman for all occasions in TN-She is the most prominent woman politician in the Congress camp in Tamil Nadu. First introduced to active politics by late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi nearly 25 years ago,when she was made a member of the Upper House at age 32,she has remained close to the dynasty — though she had broken away from the party once. Her loyalty was one of the key reasons that worked in her favour in the Cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday.

Natarajan is no outsider to the Congress or parliamentary politics. Her grandfather M Bakthavatsalam was the last Congress Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu after he took over the reins from the legendary K Kamaraj.

After graduating as a lawyer from Madras Law College,she was practising in Chennai while also working with Doordarshan. In the late 1990s,when the Congress leadership in Delhi led by late prime minister P V Narasimha Rao decided to align with the J Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK,Jayanthi resigned from the Rajya Sabha and joined hands with veteran party leader G K Moopanar to form the splinter Tamil Manila Congress. In the United Front government after the 1996 elections,she became Minister for for Civil Aviation and Parliamentary Affairs.

Returning to the parent party when the TMC merged with the Congress,Jayanthi has been one of its spokespersons,a constant presence in television studios representing and defending her party as and when required.

Signal ahead of UP polls

Beni Prasad Verma

Steel

He has been elevated from Minister of State (Independent Charge). A long-time aide of Mulayam Singh Yadav,he co-founded the Samajwadi Party and was Telecom Minister during 1996-98. Though he opposed Mulayam’s decision to checkmate Sonia Gandhi from becoming PM in1999,he did not distance himself from Mulayam till the run-up to the 2007 elections in UP. Verma was inducted in the Congress by party treasurer Motilal Vora ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. This is believed to have helped the Congress its tally in UP. He was made MoS in the last reshuffle; his elevation now comes ahead of the UP elections next year and is being seen as a signal to his non-Yadav support base.

Hit after many near-misses

Kishore

Chandra Deo

Tribal Affairs

since he entered the Lok Sabha in 1977 and was made MoS for Steel,Mines and Coal in 1979-80,V Kishore Chandra Deo,64,has had a series of “near-misses” when it came to plum posts. In 2009,the Congress leadership almost finalised his name for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker before opting for Meira Kumar. Known for his soft and suave yet persuasive manner,the five-term Lok Sabha MP,who also had a stint in the Upper House,enjoys the confidence of the party high command and has been a member of several parliamentary committees. The Andhra Pradesh leader hails from a family of tribal chieftains; his ST status was reaffirmed recently by the Supreme Court.

Climbing and climbing

Paban Singh Ghatowar

MoS,DoNER (Ind charge)

In the early 1970s,when illiterate tea-leaf plucker Kaushalya Ghatowar in Upper Assam wanted to send her son to college in Shillong,her neighbours laughed at her ambition to “make him a raja”. Today,Kaushalya,85,told her grandson Nomal Mahatre,“See,my Paban has finally become a raja!” Paban Singh Ghatowar graduated in Arts from St Anthony’s College,Shillong,took the student route to politics,and became general secretary and later president of the Congress-led Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha,and then Dibrugarh MP for five terms. In 1991,he was made a deputy minister,later becoming MoS for Health in 1995-96. This time he is MoS with independent charge.

Face of Trinamool in Delhi

Dinesh

Trivedi

Railways

In 2006,when Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was on a 23-day fast at Esplanade,Dinesh Trivedi,then a Rajya Sabha member,shuttled between Delhi and Kolkata conveying messages between the Prime Minister and his party chief. Trivedi,an articulate politician with an MBA from the University of Texas and also a trained commercial pilot,has always been the Trinamool Congress face in Delhi since its inception in 1998. He has now been rewarded with a post held till recently by the party chief herself. A Gujarati by birth and a B Com from St Xavier’s College,Kolkata,Trivedi was in the travel business before he joined politics: Janata Dal,Congress and Trinamool.

Rebel returns to win a cause

Sudip

Bandyopadhyay

MoS,Health and

Family Welfare

One may call it a perfect irony. In 2003,Sudip Bandyopadhyay,then Trinamool Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha,was expelled from the party for his ambition to become a Union minister. A few days later Bandyopadhyay convened a convention at Mitra Parishad Bhavan at Bowbazaar,and when one reporter told him that he had been expelled for six years Bandyopadhyay retorted: “Will this party survive for six years?” Eight years on,the party has not only survived but also ensured that his old wish has been granted. Bandopadhyay has been elected to the Lok Sabha thrice. After his expulsion he joined the Congress and was elected an MLA from Bowbazaar,but fell out with the Conress and went back to Trinamool.

Chance to showcase PR skills

Rajiv Shukla

MoS,Parliamentary Affairs

Shukla will be very much at home honing his networking skills,the reason he has moved up the corridors of power within a short span of time. The 51-year-old affable man,who still prefers to call himself a journalist but is known for his good relations across political parties,with Bollywood stars,and his influence in the cricket world,will need to do some deft handling in Parliament as Opposition parties gear up to confront the government. After two decades in journalism,Shukla entered politics in 2000,first with the Loktantrik Congress. In the Congress,he has helped organise meetings between Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi and the likes of Shah Rukh Khan. For the cricket Board,he is vice-president and official spokesperson.

Exit father,enter son

Milind Deora

MoS,Commerce & Industry

Son of former Union minister from Mumbai Murli Deora,Milind belongs to generation next of the Congress. When his father resigned as minister,he had pitched for Milind’s inclusion. Serving his second consecutive term as a Lok Sabha MP from Mumbai South,Milind,35,is a science and business graduate. He runs an NGO,Sparsh,that works with needy students. Till today,his name was being thrown up for the post of president of the Mumbai Region Congress Committee but such an appointment was opposed by the rival group led by Gurudas Kamat. Milind’s father Murli and Kamat have been arch-rivals. A musician who plays the guitar and has performed at live gigs,Milind is married to Pooja Shetty,daughter of Manmohan Shetty.

Faith in Digvijaya’s man

Charan Das

Mahant

MoS,Agriculture,Food

Processing Industries

Charan Das Mahant is the only Congress MP from Chhattisgarh,with the BJP having pocketed the remaining 10 Lok Sabha seats. The Congress had fared as poorly in the 2004 elections when Ajit Jogi was the lone winner but was not considered for a ministerial berth. Jogi and Mahant,an OBC leader,are rivals in the local politics. Jogi had openly opposed Mahant’s election as the state party president. Son of a politician,57-year-old Mahant became an MP for the first time in 1998. An aide of Digvijaya Singh,Mahant was first elected to the undivided MP Assembly in 1980. Mahant was given a special assignment by Singh in the recent Assembly elections in Assam,another sign of his proximity.

Out of Rahul’s way but an opportunity to grow

A scion of the erstwhile royal family of Alwar,Jitendra Singh,40,was not very well-known outside of Rajasthan,where he had two terms as MLA,till 2007 when he shot into prominence after being appointed AICC secretary and then being picked by Rahul Gandhi to look after the Youth Congress. A national medallist in trap shooting,Singh,who holds a B Com degree,gradually gained Rahul’s trust and confidence. While he is seen as “Rahul’s man” in the cabinet,Congress leaders believe this could be the beginning of his distancing from Team Rahul. Singh,who was earlier in charge of Indian Youth Congress,was recently made in charge of training of the IYC and the NSUI,while Rahul entrusted Meenakshi Natarajan with the task of implementing his prime project of holding internal elections in these organisations. Working under Home Minister P Chidambaram,however,Singh could look forward to learning a lot about administration.

Out in the cold

Age,health and performance issues

B K Handique

DoNER

The fate of the Northeast’s lone minister had been sealed earlier when he lost Mines. Handique,at 77,was among the seniormost ministers in the cabinet though his aides point out he is younger than some others. What went against him was the fact that he was hospitalised for about a month last year for a lung infection,and had become hard of hearing — factors that contributed to an impression of non-performance. Last winter session,when an Opposition member raised a matter relating to the Mines Ministry,he said he could not hear him,as Sonia Gandhi noted quietly from her seat. Handique reportedly had such problems in cabinet meetings too; he has lately been using a hearing aid.

From one blow to another

MS Gill

Statistics and Programme Implementation

A controversial stint as Sports Minister had seen him transferred last time. In a tenure that saw the Commonwealth Games mess,he had taken on the cricket Board over doping laws; tried to set an age limit for sports federation heads; made gaffes such as failing to recognise badminton star Gopichand. In his last ministry,he took on other ministries over delays in projects,but key programmes did not take off in his own,including reforms to meet the paucity of trained statisticians and giving legal teeth to the National Statistical Commission.

Too close to Jagan for Cong’s comfort

a Sai Prathap

MoS,Heavy Industries

he WAS dropped for non-performance but the decision appeared driven by political factors too. The Rajampet MP owed his ministerial berth to late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy. After Jagan Mohan Reddy launched a rebellion against the Congress floating his own party,Sai Prathap was believed to have been in touch with the son of the late CM. With nothing exceptional in terms of his performance as a minister,his perceived proximity with Kadapa MP appeared to have forced the Congress high command to wield the stick.

Workload eased with focus on MP

Kantilal Bhuria

Tribal Affairs

His exit was imminent since his appointment as Madhya Pradesh Congress chief last April. With the party having lost 2003 and 2008 Assembly elections and showing no signs of improvement in recent byelections,the Congress wanted him to focus on the faction-ridden party for the 2013 elections. He is closel to Digvijaya Singh. Bhuria’s tenure as Tribal Affairs Minister was not very remarkable although he did take some initiatives like pushing for the creation of a National Council for Tribal Welfare.

After early signs,the axe

Arun Yadav

MoS,Agriculture & Food Processing

Industries

HIS REMOVAL is believed to be because of non-performance and not because he aligned,or did not align,with any faction within the party. Polite and non-controversial,he is the son of Subhash Yadav,Congress veteran from MP,whose clout helped the son,while a novice,win the Khargone Lok Sabha seat in a 2007 bypoll against strong BJP rival Krishna Morari Moghe. MoS for Heavy Industries till the last reshuffle,he was transferred in January,the first sign that his performance was being monitored.

THE FULL TEAM

Cabinet ministers

Prime Minister: Manmohan Singh;

also in-charge of Personnel,Public Grievances & Pensions; Planning; Department of Atomic Energy,Department of Space

Finance: Pranab Mukherjee

Agriculture; Food Processing Industries: Sharad Pawar

Defence: A K Antony

Home: P Chidambaram

External Affairs: S M Krishna

Steel: Beni Prasad Verma

Micro,Small & Medium Enterprises: Virbhadra Singh

Rural Development: Jairam Ramesh

Urban Development: Kamal Nath

Railways: Dinesh Trivedi

Tribal Affairs,Panchayati Raj:

V Kishore Chandra Deo

Health and Family Welfare:

Ghulam Nabi Azad

Power: Sushil Kumar Shinde

Law & Justice,Minority Affairs:

Salman Khursheed

New and Renewable Energy:

Farooq Abdullah

Petroleum & Natural Gas: S Jaipal Reddy

Overseas Indian Affairs,Civil Aviation: Vayalar Ravi

Commerce and Industry,Textiles: Anand Sharma

Information and Broadcasting:

Ambika Soni

Corporate Affairs: Veerappa Moily

Labour & Employment: Mallikarjun Kharge

HRD; Communications and IT: Kapil Sibal

Road Transport and Highways:

C P Joshi

Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation; Culture: Kumari Selja

Tourism: Subodh Kant Sahay

Shipping: G K Vasan

Science and Technology,Earth Sciences: Vilasrao Deshmukh

Parliamentary Affairs;

Water Resources: Pawan Kumar Bansal

Social Justice & Empowerment:

Mukul Wasnik

Chemicals & Fertilisers: M K Alagiri

Coal: Sriprakash Jaiswal

Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises: Praful Patel

MoS,Independent Charge

Statistics and Programme Implementration: Srikant Jena;

also MoS; Chemicals & Fertilisers

Mines: Dinsha J Patel

Women & Child Development:

Krishna Tirath

Environment & Forests:

Jayanthi Natarajan

Consumer Affairs; Food & Public Distribution: K V Thomas

N-E Development: Paban Singh Ghatowar

Youth Affairs & Sports: Ajay Maken

MoS

External Affairs: E Ahamed,Preneet Kaur

HRD: E Ahamed,D Purandeswari

Home: Jitendra Singh,

Mullapally Ramachandran

Personnel,Public Grievances and Pensions; PMO: V Narayanasamy

Parliamentary Affairs: Harish Rawat,

Rajiv Shukla

Agriculture and Food Processing Industries: Harish Rawat,

Charan Das Mahant

Commerce & Industry: Jyotiraditya Scindia

Railways: K H Muniappa,Bharatsinh Solanki

Textiles: Panabaka Lakshmi

Finance: Namo Narain Meena,

S S Palanimanickam

Defence: M M Pallam Raju

Urban Development: Saugata Ray

Rural Development: Sisir Adhikari,

Pradeep Jain,Agatha Sangma

Road Transport and Highways:

Jitin Prasada,Tusharbhai Chaudhary

Health & Family Welfare:

Sudip Bandyopadhyay,S Gandhiselvan

Communications,IT:

Milind Deora,Sachin Pilot

Shipping: Mukul Roy

Tribal Affairs: Mahadev S Khandela

Tourism: Sultan Ahmed

I&B: Choudhury Mohan Jatua,

S Jagathrakshakan

Social Justice & Empowerment:

D Napoleon

Coal: Pratik Prakashbapu Patil

Petroleum & Natural Gas,Corporate Affairs: R P N Singh

Water Resources,Minority Affairs: Vincent Pala

Planning; Science and Technology,Earth Sciences: Ashwani Kumar

Power: K C Venugopal