World | India
MPs now eye cabinet berths
Several of the leaders are heirs to the political legacies of their families.
- By Pamela Raghunath, Correspondent
- Published: 22:56 May 18, 2009
Mumbai: Many of the young guns belonging to the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) who have chalked up creditable victories in the parliamentary elections from Maharashtra may be heirs to the political legacies of their families but their ambition is now to secure cabinet berths in the new government.
Among the frontrunners in this category are Priya Dutt, 43, who inherited the political legacy of her father, Sunil Dutt, and has persistently nurtured her constituency and kept in touch with the electorate in spite of the delimitation law that changed the very geographical outlines of her constituency.
Dutt won from the Mumbai North-West seat and not from Mumbai North Central where she did all the spade work.
Milind Deora, 32, is yet another aspirant though it all depends whether his father Murli Deora is retained as petroleum minister by the new government.
Other new and first-time MPs who are there because of their fathers or uncles include Nilesh Rane, son of Congressman and Maharashtra minister Narayan Rane; Sameer Bhujbal, nephew of Chhagan Bhujbal; NCP leader, Sanjeev Naik, son of Ganesh Naik, NCP minister; and Sanjay Patil, the lone NCP MP from Mumbai and son of former state lawmaker Dina Patil.
It also remains to be seen whether NCP president Sharad Pawar's daughter, Supriya Sule, who won with an outstanding margin from Baramati, her father's fiefdom, gets a cabinet berth.
Pawar himself, who has been flirting with the third front in the run up to election results, may not be considered with the same esteem as earlier.
Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel may get the same post, given his equations with Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
Apart from the younger MPs, there are others from Maharashtra who have been waiting in the wings for important cabinet posts for long. Sitting MP Gurudas Kamat, 55, who won from Mumbai North-West, would certainly expect a plum post given his patience for not demanding one earlier.
Congress general secretary Mukul Wasnik, 49, from Ramtek seat and Vilas Muttemwar, 60, from Nagpur, are from the same Nagpur region and it is likely that one of them may be chosen.
Sushilkumar Shinde, another prominent Dalit face from Solapur and a staunch Sonia loyalist, stands good chances of being made a minister. Suresh Kalmadi, who has won from Pune, is likely to seek a higher ministerial post for himself.
Your comments
In my opinion Dr. Manmohan Singh should make a team of hard working people in his ministry instead of giving berth to those who are loyal to Sonia Gandhi.
Manoj Agarwala
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 19, 2009, 14:23
It is very important that these young leaders get a chance to participate in the ministry level as Ministerial berth normally goes to the experienced. economic Stability and Politician young educated voted to power has opened up gates for a mix of young and experienced cabinet in India.
Venkat
Mumbai,India
Posted: May 19, 2009, 11:03
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