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| ‘Yes, I’m returning from Johannesburg tomorrow morning’ | | Farooq being inducted as Minister on Wednesday | | Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, May 25: National Conference (NC) patriarch Dr Farooq Abdullah, who has been returned from the Central Kashmir constituency of Srinagar-Budgam for Lok Sabha for second term in his 29-year-long political career, is most likely to be inducted as a Cabinet Minister in Dr Manmohan Singh’s UPA Government on Wednesday.
Well placed political sources told Early Times that the former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, would be among more than 25 Ministers likely to be sworn-in on Wednesday. Earlier, the swearing-in ceremony had been tentatively scheduled on Tuesday but sudden disturbing developments in Punjab and the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s preoccupation with the relief work for the cyclone victims in West Bengal had delayed expansion of the Union Council of Ministers by at least one day.
These sources revealed that Dr Abdullah had been called back from South Africa and requested to be available in New Delhi by the afternoon on Tuesday. In a telephonic conversation with this correspondent from Johannesburg this evening, Dr Abdullah confirmed that he was cutting short his IPL engagement and he would be reaching back New Delhi in the morning on Tuesday. He, however, refused to confirm that he was returning in response to a message from the Prime Minister who wanted him back for his induction into the Union Council of Ministers.
Sources said that in the wake of pressure building up from NC---particularly from some young MPs believed to be close to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah---Congress high command had decided to allot a Cabinet berth to NC, even as the party did not have the required strength of at least four Lok Sabha members. Prime Minister had earlier reserved a berth of Minister of State for NC as the party had just 3-odd members. Sources said that with the help of the Independent MP from Ladakh, Ghulam Hassan Khan, NC leadership had succeeded in convincing the Centre that that Mr Khan was “NC’s associate member” and his support to UPA was “only through the medium of National Conference”. These sources insist that the portfolio of Tourism was being considered for Dr Abdullah.
With Dr Abdullah’s possible induction, there will be now two Ministers in Dr Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet from Jammu & Kashmir. Former Chief Minister and AICC General Secretary, Ghulam Nabi Azad, had been sworn-in in the first round of oath-taking on May 22. He is likely to be allotted the portfolio of either Information & Broadcasting or Civil Aviation in addition to his primary portfolio of Parliamentary Affairs.
Sources said that there was no possibility of the induction of Dr Karan Singh or Prof Saif-ud-din Soz, both Rajya Sabha members and former Union Ministers in Dr Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet. |
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