By
L S Herdenia
BHOPAL: There is no end to the
difficulties being faced by Kamal Nath, the new chief minister of Madhya
Pradesh. He took oath on December 17 and constituted his cabinet on December
25. But even four days after being sworn-in, all the ministers are without portfolios.
This is a strange situation and has made Congress a laughing stock. It has
already eroded the prestige and authority of the chief minister.
The
process of allotment of portfolios has got stuck because of a tug-of-war
between the ministers and their mentors. Former chief minister Digvijaya Singh
and MP Jyotiraditya Scindia want key portfolios for their loyalists. The chief
minister is also keen to allocate important departments to his men. The
departments of home, transport, urban administration, public works and
commercial taxes are the most sought-after and every faction wants that these
should go to its loyalists. As the matter was dragging on, Kamal Nath is
understood to have sent the draft portfolio allocation list to Delhi for
arbitration by Congress chief Rahul Gandhi. Meanwhile, Digvijaya Singh said
there is no dispute over allocation of portfolios. He said he had not talked to
anyone on the issue.
Besides
the delay in the allotment of portfolios, non-inclusion of some senior Congress
MLAs and Independents and BSP and SP legislators supporting the government has
become a major headache for the party leadership. The support of the
Independents and BSP and SP MLAs is crucial for the survival of the government.
There
are reports of threats being issued by the supporters of senior Congress MLA KP
Singh, who was not made a minister. The supporters of the six-time MLA have
said that they would not allow Scindia to enter Pichhore, the constituency of
Singh. A Singh supporter Arnav Pratap Singh Chouhan has posted a message on his
Facebook page saying, “Picchore Vidhan Sabha kshetra min Scindia par ban. Bhool
se bhi Pichhore Vidhan Sabha se guzarne ki galti na karein Maharaj. Kakkaju Zindabad
(The entry of Scindia into the Picchore Assembly constituency has been banned.
Do not commit the mistake of entering the Picchore Vidhan Sabha area. Kakkaju
(KP Singh) Zindabad)”
Besides
supporters of Congress MLAs, the Independents and BSP and SP legislators have
publicly declared that the chief minister has no choice but to include them in
the ministry. There are in all four Independents, two BSP and one SP MLA, with
whose help the Congress could manage to cobble up the support of 121 MLAs in
the 230-member House. Among them, only one Independent has been included in the
ministry. In the case of others, the policy of not including first-timer MLAs
in the ministry is coming in the way of their inclusion.
Meanwhile,
former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is taking advantage of what he
chose to describe as the “situation of administrative paralysis.” Talking to
newspersons, he wondered whether the Congress government in the state was being
run by Kamal Nath or a group of factional leaders.
He
said that if the situation continued, it would be difficult for the Congress
government to function. “If ministers are controlled by their respective
political masters, how will the cabinet decide issues collectively,” he asked.
Chouhan
said that the ministers should get departments immediately so that the
government starts functioning. He said that development of the state should not
get disrupted and the new government should start working towards the fulfilment
of promises without delay.
“But
the manner in which the factional leaders are fighting from the day Nath was
invited to form the government, this doesn’t seem to be possible and it is a
matter of concern for us,” Chouhan said. (IPA
Service)
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