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| No early signs of cabinet expansion | | Congress initiates discussions; Azad returns, Tara in Delhi | | ZAFAR CHOUDHARY
Jammu, Jan 22: While a desperate lot of legislators from both National Conference and the Congress are keenly awaiting expansion of Omar Abdullah government but developments do not suggest any early signs of expansion.
With delegation of powers of the departments under charge of Chief Minister to the administrative secretaries has made it clearer that cabinet expansion may take longer time than expected. Around ten departments, not allotted to any Minister, are being looked after by the Chief Minister and it was becoming a cumbersome job for him to go through all files.
Sources said that what prompted the Chief Minister to delegate powers to the administrative secretaries was a file moved to Chief Minister’s Office seeking his approval for a corrigendum. “It was too small a job to be seen by the Chief Minister personally”, said a source. Before Wednesday’s order of delegation powers to the administrative secretaries all files pertaining to departments not headed by Ministers were being forwarded to the Chief Minister’s Office.
The Chief Minister had earlier indicated that his Council of Ministers may be expanded after the Muharram but sources said that a consensus is yet to be arrived at between coalition partners on expansion of Ministry. It is learnt that the hitch is from Congress which has not been able to zero in on the faces to be inducted in the Cabinet.
Sources said that the Congress, within the party, has kicked off discussions on the issue but expansion may take place only after Rajya Sabha elections, scheduled for February 13.
The Congress, sources said, initiated discussions on the return of its senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad who was away in Saudi Arabia. Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand, who has emerged as strong leaders in J&K, Congress has also rushed to New Delhi to participate in the discussions where a strategy and selection of candidate for Rajya Sabha elections is also an issue.
Sources said that Azad will discuss the names of the party candidates for the Rajya Sabha seats and also finalise with the Congress high command the arrangement for seat sharing with its ally the National Conference. Will it be two seats for each or the National Conference may seek three seats on the basis of bigger number of MLAs than the Congress has? The National Conference has 27 MLAs and the Congress 17.The Congress may be able to add three more with the support of Ghulam Hassan Mir,Hakim Mohd.Yasin and M.Y.Tarigami. Indications are that the two parties will agree on 50:50 share
Azad is likely to take up with the party high command pertains to the choice of candidates for induction in the cabinet. The Congress has the scope for recommending the names of eight candidates for cabinet berth. Will the Congress prefer waiting till the election to the vacant seats in the Legislative Council was over? It may opt for this alternative if it has an eye for taking a couple of MLCs in the cabinet.
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