The man most likely to get that job is Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde
Even as there is no certainty on precisely when the next Cabinet
reshuffle takes place or indeed, when a new Finance Minister is
appointed — it is likely to happen only after the country gets a new
President and a Vice-President — a new Leader of the Lok Sabha will have
to be named before the monsoon session starts in July-end.
As things stand, the man most likely to get that job is Power Minister
Sushil Kumar Shinde: Congress sources say that of the senior leaders
available in the Lower House, he fulfils best the criteria required,
apart from the social message that it will send out as he is a senior
Dalit leader. As far as experience goes, he has not just been a Union
Minister, he has been Chief Minister of Maharashtra — earlier, as
Finance Minister in the State, he presented nine successive budgets. In a
fractious House, his rapport with leaders across party lines can help
him play the role of Leader better, and he has a pleasant, conciliatory
manner.
The only factor that can go against him, senior party leaders say, is
that he has deposed before the Commission investigating the Adarsh
scandal in Mumbai, even though there are no specific charges against
him.
If it is not Mr. Shinde, the party will have to dip into its pool of
senior Cabinet Ministers: they include Home Minister and seven-time Lok
Sabha member P. Chidambaram, Corporate Affairs Minister Veerappa Moily
(if the party wants to send out a message to poll-bound Karnataka), who
has been Chief Minister of Karnataka, and Minister for Urban Development
Kamal Nath, who has been a Lok Sabha member a record eight times.
As for the other jobs the UPA’s Presidential candidate, Pranab
Mukherjee, vacated, they are being gradually filled: for instance, one
of the many Empowered Groups of Ministers (EGoM) that he headed — the
one on Telecom Spectrum — will now be chaired by Agriculture Minister
Sharad Pawar. Gradually, in the coming days, new heads will be announced
for the other EGoMs and GoMs.
Finance portfolio
As for the Finance portfolio, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has taken
charge and, as the events of this week have demonstrated, he is paying
it the special attention it needs. For the UPA government, clearly,
fixing the economy will head its agenda, as its growing unpopularity has
as much to do with the stain of corruption as high prices.
However, government sources say the Prime Minister is likely to
relinquish the Finance portfolio ahead of the annual meetings of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group in Tokyo
slated for October this year. Till then, he will run the Ministry with
the advice of Economic Advisory Council chairman C. Rangarajan and
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. He may
re-allocate the work now allotted to the two MoSs in the Finance
Ministry, S.S. Palanimanickam, and Namo Narain Meena. B.V.R.
Subrahmanyam, joint secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in
charge of Finance, will play a coordinating role between the PMO and the
Finance Ministry. A 1987 batch IAS officer, he was Dr. Singh’s private
secretary in UPA 1.
Meanwhile, the Congress was quick to rubbish the Opposition’s claims
that the Prime Minister differed with the former Finance Minister on how
to deal with the economy. “Such allegations are baseless,” Congress
spokesperson Manish Tiwari said, responding to questions, stressing that
the five issues that were referred to when economic reforms were spoken
of — the Direct Tax Code, the Goods and Services Tax, the banking,
insurance and pension reforms — were on course.
“The Standing Committee’s Report on the DTC is back with the government,
while the government has been trying for the last three years to get a
political consensus on the GST,” he said, adding: “As for the remaining
three, some of them are with the Standing Committee, some with the
government. A process has to be followed: it’s a work in progress.”
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