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Lok Shakti, Samata unhappy about Cabinet expansion

The Lok Shakti and the Samata Party, two important members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition, have expressed unhappiness at today's expansion of the Union Cabinet.

The Lok Shakti said the BJP ought to have taken its allies into confidence rather than go in for a "limited induction".

Admitting that Cabinet expansion is the prime minister's prerogative, Lok Shakti spokesman M Raghupathy said it would have been better if the exercise had been undertaken after the current session of Parliament and after taking all the allies into confidence.

He declined to say if his party had sought some more berths in the Cabinet.

Lok Shakti president Ramakrishna Hegde, a member of the Rajya Sabha, is the Union commerce minister. The party has three members in the Lok Sabha.

Senior Samata Party politician and former Bihar chief minister Abdul Ghafoor, MP, said the nature of expansion of the Cabinet proves that the BJP is more interested in protecting its own interests.

"The BJP-led government does not believe in protecting the interests of the minorities, and on that I do not have any illusions," he said.

Party spokesman Digvijay Singh reserved his comment.

UNI

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