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Trinamul Congress reverses stand, says it's ready to join Vajpayee's govt

The stage is set for the first major Cabinet expansion of the 10-month-old Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. Two of the major allies of the ruling coalition - the All India Anna DMK and Trinamul Congress - have given the green signal to the prime minister to go ahead with the exercise.

In a reversal of their earlier stand not to join the government, senior Trinamul Congress leader Ajit Kumar Panja met the prime minister and informed him of his party's decision to join his government.

Talking to the media after the meeting, Panja said that the Trinamul Congress has staked claim for the railway and programme implementation portfolios.

AIADMK supremo J <09jaya1.htm>Jayalalitha sent a communication to the prime minister two days ago, believed to be a list of ministers to be included in the Cabinet.

More than the inclusion of the AIADMK members in the government, she is understood to be bent on stripping the petroleum portfolio from her detractor V K Ramamurthy. It, however, remains to be seen whether the prime minister would let down his supporters to befriend Jayalalitha.

The relations between Ramamurthy and Jayalalitha have remained strained since August 13, 1998 when the former foiled the AIADMK chief's attempt to withdraw support to the BJP government.

Sources close to Ramamurthy said the prime minister was yet to hold discussions with him on this issue.

Vajpayee had to drop two ministers of the AIADMK -- S Muthiah, when he faced a chargesheet in a case of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income, and R K Kumar on grounds of ''ill-health''.

The AIADMK list is likely to include C Sreenivasan, K Gopal and Miraikulathan.

Prime Minister Vajpayee has been holding a series of discussions with the leaders of alliance partners for the last few days in connection with the expansion of the Cabinet. He met Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and had a telephonic talk with Jayalalitha.

Among the frontrunners for inclusion in the government from the Samata Party are Digvijay Singh and Abdul Gafoor. The candidature of Prem Singh Chandumajra of the Akali Dal is being sponsored by Shiromani Gurdwara PrabhandakCommittee president Gurcharan Singh Tohra.

UNI

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