The congress is getting ready for the assembly polls due this year in some states gave signal with the appointment of three Union Ministers in charge of the three different states on Wednesday.
Union Minister P R Dasmunshi was appointed chief in charge of West Bengal, Minister of State for personal and parliamentary affairs Suresh Pachauri and Union Minister for water resources Saifuddin Soz was appointed heads to lead the unit Congress of poll bound state of Madhya Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir respectively.
Sources say that Dashmunshi and Pachauri will have to leave one post in the council of ministers, which would pave the way for the reshuffle of the cabinet. A senior AICC leader said, “those who have two portfolios, will have to relinquish one. The party will decide upon which portfolios the minister would have to shed.”
However Minister of “Information and Broadcasting” and “Parliamentary Affairs” Priyaranjan Dasmunshi pointed out he would like to continue the current portfolios simultaneously with the new one of heading the West Bengal unit of Congress.
On the question of his relinquish of one portfolio, he said, “I should not say that one-man-one-post has always been maintained. Pranab Mukherjee is a very senior leader and he had been heading PCC along with Defence Ministry and for sometime in External Affairs Ministry.”
He said that he had seen in some exceptional cases that some friends have done earlier the dual duty simultaneously. Although he did not disclose the name, but said even some of the senior ministers have been in capacity of being the Working Committee Members or in charge of the member of the state in several significant states, and even they are doing.
When asked which of the two ministries he would like to relinquish, he said that it’s up to the Prime Minister and the Congress President to decide.
‘My first priority would be to fight against the misrule of the ruling CPI (Marxist) despite being the Left a supporting party of the UPA at the Centre,’ he replied on asking his priority of work as the Chief of West Bengal PCC. He said he would campaign for the party in Tripura, where the assembly election is scheduled to be held on February 23 followed by holding a meeting with Congress leaders in the West Bengal on February 15.
It is to be noted that senior leader Pranab Mukherjee had resigned from the Chief of PCC in 2006 after the party lost the elections to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in West Bengal.
Suresh Pachauri, will replace senior congress leader Subhash Yadav for the Madhya Pradesh PCC head. Pachauri’s fourth Rajya Sabha term will end in May this year.
The party said Congress president Sonia Gandhi has approved Prof Soz's name in consultation with the general secretary in-charge of the state affairs.
The move is aimed at strengthening the position of Congress in Jammu and Kashmir at a crucial time when the state goes to polls later this year. Prof Soz replaces Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed who had resigned from the post on January 17 in the wake of corruption charges levelled against him.
He would retain the Ministry of Water Resources for the time being. The Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir are scheduled to be held in September-October this year.
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