Mamata likely to settle for Rly ministry, five MoS berths

NEW DELHI: Having arrived in Parliament with a bloc of 20 MPs, including one from Suci tagging on, Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress has
Mamata Banerjee
Mamata Banerjee
settled for a single Cabinet berth, which she will keep for herself. Initially, the offer from Congress negotiators Pranab Mukherjee and Ahmed Patel was for two Cabinet and three minister of state portfolios, according to highly placed sources.

Unless there is a last moment twist, Congress has agreed to Banerjee's demand for the railway ministry, it is learnt.

The offer to Banerjee, who met Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday and was in touch with Patel and Mukherjee over phone through Thursday, was made in two packages. The first offered two Cabinet and three MoS berths while the second package offered one Cabinet and five MoS slots.

Banerjee decided to settle for the second offer since she saw a possibility of accommodating one more MP as minister.

The more important reason, however, is not unknown to those who have followed Banerjee's brand of politics. In a party that she runs single-handedly, she is apprehensive of allowing any other colleague to emerge at par with her or develop their independent relations with the higher-ups.

The probables likely to make it as ministers of state from Trinamool Congress are Saugata Ray, Dinesh Tribedi, Sultan Ahmed, Sisir Adhikari and in all probability, TMC's Rajya Sabha member Mukul Roy. While Sultan Ahmed is the Muslim face of the party, Sudip Bandopadhyay missed the bus as the TMC chief is cut up with him for refusing to be chief whip of the party in Parliament. Gobinda Nashkar, an SC MP, has been made deputy leader of the parliamentary party. Two other members, including Chaudhury Mohan Jatua, are likely to be made chairmen of standing committees that will come the TMC's way.

The ministries she is looking at are those she feels can impact the lives of the poor and the rural populace in West Bengal, with her target being the assembly polls in 2011. With that in mind, Banerjee has given her preferences for health, rural development, urban development, tourism and I&B/culture.

Her idea for not going in for "attractive" ministries is also that there would be less chances of allegations of corruption against her team before assembly polls in Bengal.

Mamata had asked for one seat more than DMK, that is a total of seven ministers including herself, as she got 19 plus one that is 20 members while DMK comes to the House with 18. But now that DMK has decided on outside support to the government, there is pressure on Mamata from her party to get more ministerial berths.

QnA: Should the Congress induct more young MPs in the cabinet?

Should the Congress allot ministerial posts to the new allies or reserve them only for Congress party members?