Maran will go soon, Mamata to get going

NEW DELHI: There is a joke doing the rounds in the capital’s corridors of power about the impending Cabinet reshuffle being contemplated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh: If Digvijaya Singh has his way, Manmohan would also be replaced in the Union Cabinet.Jokes apart, a major reshuffle to help revamp the scam-hit Manmohan Singh Cabinet’s image is on the cards. The new cabinet is likely to be much larger than the present one. Congress party sources indicated that the new Cabinet composition is being driven by coalition compulsions; one, the Ministry of Railways held by the Trinamool Congress needs a full-fledged Cabinet minister. Two, Minister for Textiles Dayanidhi Maran of the DMK will be dropped.On the CBI radar for his alleged role in the spectrum allocation and for misuse of multiple BSNL lines to run a personal telephone exchange for his Sun Group of companies in Chennai during his stint as Telecom Minister in UPA I, his exit is more or less decided. The DMK is in no mood to defend his perch in the Union Cabinet. Sources say either T R Baalu may replace him or the DMK will change tactics and support the Government from outside.The Congress party’s iron hand has come out of its coalition velvet glove— the party’s top brass is not even making a token show of goodwill to its estranged ally, the DMK by refusing to even pretend to negotiate ministerial seats in the forthcoming Cabinet reshuffle with the DMK chief M Karunanidhi.He has been ignored by the ruling party during his frequent visits to Delhi after his daughter Kanimozhi was jailed for her involvement in the 2G scandal—during his last Delhi trip, not even a junior minister bothered to meet the veteran UPA ally.It only goes to show the extent to which the ties have soured between the two allies. However, the Congress has taken care to keep its other UPA ally, the Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the loop. By ignoring a demoralised DMK and showing respect to the TMC, the Congress reshuffle reflects the party’s newly discovered resolve to combine public relations with rational coalition dharma.