LS will house 150 ‘criminals’ Page 1 of 2

Publication: Times Of India Mumbai; Date:2009 May 18; Section:Dance Of Democracy; Page
Number: 11

LS will house 150 ‘criminals’

22% Rise In MPs With Cases Against Them, M’rashtra 2nd On List
Team TOI

New Delhi: Prominent dons as well as wives of many convicted politicians may have bitten the
dust at the hustings but many tainted personalities have still managed to make it to the 15th
Lok Sabha.
An analysis of the affidavits filed by contestants reveals that there has been a 22% increase
in MPs with criminal cases compared with those elected in 2004. About 150 newly elected MPs
have criminal cases pending against them. These include 73 who have serious charges under
various counts of the IPC.
According to poll watch group National Election Watch, which conducted the analysis, the BJP
has the maximum MPs (42) with criminal cases pending against them. It is closely followed by
the Congress with 41. The SP comes third with eight such MPs while the BSP has six.
UP has elected most MPs (31) with criminal cases against them, while Maharashtra comes
second with 23. They are followed by Bihar (17), Andhra Pradesh (11), Gujarat (11), Karnataka
(9)e and West Bengal and Tamil Nadu with seven each.
Topmost on the list of prominent personalities with criminal cases who lost the polls are: Atiq
Ahmad of the Apna Dal, UP; Vijay Shukla of the JD(U), Bihar; Mitrasen of SP, UP and Akhilesh
Singh, Independent, who fought from Nawada, Bihar. Dinesh Rathour, another Independent
candidate who fought from Araria in Bihar, tops the losers chart prepared on the basis of the
number of IPC cases filed against these individuals.
Giving out other details about the polls, National Election Watch, a body comprising ex-IIM
professors and ex-CEC J M Lyngdoh, stated that 369 parties contested the polls, of which only
36 parties were successful in sending at least one MP into the Lok Sabha. Of these, 19 parties
have three or less MPs.

TOP 10-TED MEN

Jagdish Sharma: Jehanabad (Bihar), JD(U)

Bal Kumar Patel: Mirzapur (Uttar Pradesh), SP

Prabhatsinh P Chauhan:
Panchmahal (Gujarat), BJP

Kapil Muni Karwariya: Phulpur (UP), BSP

P Karunakaran: Kasaragod (Kerala), CPM

Lalu Prasad: Saran (Bihar), RJD

Kunvarjibhai M Bavaliya: Rajkot (Gujarat), Cong

Vitthalbhai H Radadiya: Porbandar (Gujarat) Cong

Varun Gandhi: Pilibhit (UP), BJP

Chandrakant R Patil: Navsari (Gujarat), BJP

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LS will house 150 ‘criminals’ Page 2 of 2

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29 Freshers In Team Manmohan Page 1 of 5

Publication: Times Of India Mumbai; Date:2009 May 28; Section:Front Page; Page Number:
1

29 Freshers In Team Manmohan

UP Has No Cabinet Minister, K’taka Highest Mantri To MP Ratio
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Team Manmohan is finally in place. After three days and several rounds of
brainstorming, the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi finalised a team of 78 at around noon on
Wednesday, clearing the way for the second stage of government formation which will see no
less than 59 ministers take the oath of office on Thursday.
As the calls began to go out—some by both the PM and Sonia—to the ones that had made it,
a buzz grew about surprise exclusions and inclusions. After seeking to work through conflicting
claims, Singh and Sonia have delivered a package that holds 29 freshers and nine ex-CMs (in
some cases like that of Vilasrao Deshmukh, they overlap). It also matches loyalty with
experience
and political equations and seeks to ensure that merit doesn’t get short shrift.
The government won’t have oldtime loyalists H R Bhardwaj and Arjun Singh, Jat veteran Sis
Ram Ola, and outgoing ministers Saifuddin Soz and Ashwini Kumar.
With 33 ministers of cabinet rank, seven MOS with independent charge and 38 MoS, there is
scarcely any space for more as the size of the council of ministers cannot cross 81. In other
words, there can at best be just three more. For those who are in, it’s now a tense wait for
portfolios, while for the rejects, it is a case of heartburn that some may give voice to in the next
few days.
If there was some puzzlement over why, despite a resounding mandate, the Congress brass
took so long to draw up the ministry, the answers may lie in the choices that had to be made.
Take the case of ex-Maharashtra CM Vilasrao Deshmukh who, given his seniority, may land an
important portfolio despite proving to be incapable of handling crisis situations, as 26/11
proved. This is because he is seen as a Maratha leader capable of countering a Congress friend-
rival—NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
An assembly election looms in Maharashtra in a few months and Congress ministers from
the state like Sushilkumar Shinde, Gurudas Kamat, Murli Deora and Mukul Wasnik are all non-
Marathas. And Deshmukh can talk tough.
Similarly, why induct ex-Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh when the tiny state has a
cabinet minister in Anand Sharma? Well, Sharma was rewarded for loyalty. But this would
have left Virbhadra and the Thakurs—an important caste in Himachal—in the cold.
The caste matrix can make your head spin, but another poser is why there’s not a single
cabinet minister from UP even when the Congress’s bid to revive itself there seem to be paying
off. Consider the dilemma—how to pick the suave Salman Khursheed over Sriprakash Jaiswal,
who has now won thrice in a row. Beni Prasad Varma has just crossed over from the SP and it
may not be right to select him just yet.
Congress campaign lynchpin Jairam Ramesh has come in—he is efficient and innovative and
one of the fewclose to Rahul Gandhi.

PM on TV: Thanks, India

The tough task of distributing ministerships out of the way on Thursday, PM Manmohan Singh is
expected to go on television soon to thank the Indian voter for giving the Congress a
comfortable mandate to form a stable government. The address, which is slotted for TV before
parliament assembles on June 1, is likely to include references to his agenda for governance.
TNN P 10

MEET YOUR MINISTERS

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29 Freshers In Team Manmohan Page 2 of 5

23% or 1 of every 4 UPA MPs are ministers Karnataka has highest ratio of 36% in big
states; 4 out of 11 MPs (LS + RS) Kerala has ratio of 32%: 6 mantris out of 19 MPs

W Bengal has 30% ratio, with TMC and Cong getting 8 mins of 27 MPs

TN has 26% due to DMK; 9 ministers of 35 UPA MPs

Delhi has best-ever ratio of 30% with 3 of 10 MPs

Maharashtra closer to national average with 25% ratio – 9 out of 36 MPs

Haryana worst off with 8% – 1 min out of 12 MPs

The new-look ministry is a skillful balancing act of regional, caste and gender considerations.
Efficiency helps, and party loyalty doesn’t hurt

CABINET MINISTERS

Virbhadra Singh | LS: 3-time CM is a Rajput and with Anand Sharma, a Brahmin, takes care
of two big Himachal communities
Vilasrao Deshmukh | LS: Maratha leader, counterweight to Pawar
Farooq Abdullah | LS: Cements the alliance between Rahul and Omar
Mallikarjun Kharge | LS: Dalit from Karnataka, politically effective
Kumari Selja | LS: Dalit, but combines efficiency with right political credentials
Subodh K Sahay | LS: Only one to win from Jharkhand where polls are a year away
Pawan K Bansal | LS: Is efficient, loyal and tenacious. A good organizer too M S Gill | RS:
Likely to get sports again; for Commonwealth Games may be to Rahul what Buta was to Rajeev
for Asian Games
Mukul Wasnik | LS: Dalit, organization man, will be useful in coming Maharashtra polls
Kantilal Bhuria | LS: Tribal from MP. Strong political leader G K Vasan | RS: With
Chidambaram, second Cong minister from TN. Is politically effective Dayanidhi Maran | LS:
DMK quota, Karuna's grand-nephew. May get textiles M K Azhagiri | LS: DMK quota, Karuna's
son. May be chemicals & fertilizers mantri A Raja | LS: DMK quota, Dalit leader, likely to get
communications

MoS INDEPENDENT CHARGE

Prithviraj Chauhan | RS: Scores high on loyalty

Salman Khursheed | LS: Muslim from UP. Efficient and loyal
Sriprakash Jaiswal | LS: Seniormost MP from Uttar Pradesh. Very loyal
Praful Patel | LS: NCP quota. May get civil aviation again
Dinsha Patel | LS: 6-time MP is a big Patel neta from Guj
Jairam Ramesh | RS: Close to Rahul. Efficient and an organization man
Krishna Tirath | LS: Dalit woman leader is sharp, politically savvy

MoS

Shashi Tharoor | LS: Missed UN, gets jr minister Sachin Pilot | LS: Only Gujjar minister in
team Jitin Prasada | LS: May go off to head UP Cong Jyotiraditya Scindia | LS: May be
unhappy that he didn’t get independent charge R P N Singh | LS: From UP, close to Rahul
Pradeep Jain | LS: Close to Rahul, organized Bundelkhand tour Arun Yadav | LS: Only Yadav
minister Sisir Adhikari | LS: TMC quota, from Nandigram Gurudas Kamat | LS: Lost out to
Wasnik Harish Rawat | LS: Uttarakhand leader, might be a bit disappointed Ajay Maken |
LS: Fails to get independent charge Mahadev Khandela | LS: Only Jat in ministry

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29 Freshers In Team Manmohan Page 3 of 5

There are 26 more MoS, including NTR’s daughter D Purandeswari, Amrinder Singh’s
wife Preneet Kaur, Madhavsinh Solanki's son Bharatsinh Solanki and P A Sangma’s
daughter Agatha, who is India’s youngest minister at 28
Mukul Roy | RS E Ahamed | LS V Narayanasamy | LS Srikant Jena | LS M Ramachandran | LS P
Lakshmi | LS K H Muniyappa | LS N N Meena | LS A Sai Prathap | LS M M Pallam Raju | LS Prof
K V Thomas | LS Saugata Ray | LS Dinesh Trivedi | LS Sultan Ahmed | LS Mohan Jatua | LS S S
Palanimanickam| LS D Napoleon | LS S Jagathrakshakan | LS S Gandhiselvan | LS B Solanki |
LS T Chaudhary | LS Arun Yadav | LS Prateek P Patil | LS Vincent Pala | LS

Gill gets cabinet rank, to retain charge of sports

New Delhi: Ending suspense, PM Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on
Wednesday finalised names of 59 new ministers who will join the Union Cabinet on Thursday.
R P N Singh and Pradeep Jain come in as junior ministers and are said to be close to Congress
general secretary Rahul Gandhi as is Jitin Prasada. Another young minister with promise is
Sachin Pilot. He is also the only Gujjar in Manmohan’s team.
It’s not such a surprise that M S Gill is a cabinet minister, most certainly in charge of sports.
A number of things worked for him. He came in towards the fag end of the previous
government and could not be dropped. He is seen to have shown a sense of purpose and is a
key figure in Delhi’s Commonwealth Games. The ministry may need an additional pair of
hands—an MoS as well, which it can get after being put under a cabinet minister. Equations
with the PMO also helped.
Two Muslim ministers from J&K call for an explanation. Ghulam Nabi Azad is senior and a
very experienced politico. The NC’s Farooq Abdullah is no great shakes as an administrator but
is an ally and the Congress brass felt the need to have a Kashmiri outfit represented in the
cabinet. Perhaps Rahul Gandhi’s equations with J&K CM Omar Abdullah were also in play.
Farooq may be designated minister without portfolio.
Then, why pick Mallikarjun Kharge when you already have two cabinet ministers from
Karnataka, which elected just six Congress MPs? Kharge became a necessity as he is a Mala
(Dalit) while ex-CM Veerappa Moily is an OBC and external affairs minister S M Krishna is a
‘non-backward’ Vokkaliga. Kolar MP Muniyappa is also a Dalit and has made the grade but he is
from another subcaste, Madiga, spread across the state and political prudence demands
balancing both the Malas (Kharge) and the Madigas.
There is one Jat in the team—Mahadev Khandela. The winner from Sikar, he has been
inducted as an MoS and is seen to have potential. Then, after Lalu Prasad’s colourful presence
in the previous ministry, there are no Yadavs in the cabinet either. The lone Yadav is an MoS—
Arun Yadav. Subodh Kant Sahay is the only Congress MP from Jharkhand and elections are not
too far. Charan Das Mahant is the sole victor from Chhattisgarh but though elections are far off,
the state cannot be seen as having been abandoned. G K Moopanar’s son G K Vasan is an
organisation man from Tamil Nadu, a quality not associated with P Chidambaram. Also with
several stalwarts like Mani Shankar Aiyar, Thanga Balu and Elangovan losing, Vasan made the
cut.
Maharashtra’s Mukul Wasnik returns to government after 13 years. His organisational skills,
perseverence and loyalty have paid off. Haryana’s Selja, a Dalit, has made steady progress. She
was first inducted as junior minister in the P V Narasimha Rao government and is now in the
cabinet. The threat of the BSP in Haryana is a potent consideration.
Chandigarh MP Pawan Kumar Bansal is all sincerity and tenacity. When people junior to him
were getting cabinet berths, he could not have been allowed to languish. TNN

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29 Freshers In Team Manmohan Page 4 of 5

V Deshmukh

Farooq

S Khursheed

J Ramesh

M S Gill

Selja

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29 Freshers In Team Manmohan Page 5 of 5

S Tharoor

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16 TIMES NATION | KNOW YOUR MINISTERS * THE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAI
SATURDAY, MAY 23, 2009

Manmohan Singh Has Chosen His A-Team. A Look At Some Of The Key Power Players Who Will Shape India’s Policies

INDIA’S PREMIER LEAGUE

A K Antony | 69 Pranab Mukherjee | 73
ASSETS | Rs 0.17cr
ASSETS | Rs 2.7cr
EDUCATION | LLB (Ernakulam)
EDUCATION | LLB, D.Litt (Calcutta University)
K Antony has been CM of Kerala four times. In 1977, he

A became the youngest CM of this highly literate coastal

state. Born into a poor Syrian Christian family, Antony
lost his father early and self-financed his education through
odd jobs. A practising atheist, he has had many a run-in with
DEFENDING DAD: A K Antony with son
M
ukherjee was the man for all reasons in the previous cabi-
net. Head of over 50 GOMs, he could justifiably be accused
of actually running the government. His greatest quality is
that almost every political party, however much they dislike the
Congress, always boast of excellent relations with him.
Having been in government for virtually half a century, Mukherjee
has handled pretty much every ministry under the sun — except the
crucial home ministry, a prize that has eluded him because of a per-
ceived lack of trust by the first family. In the last government, he was
the only one the difficult Left leaders would trust, to the extent that
Mukherjee became the target of a whisper campaign that said he was
uncomfortably close to the Reds.
Yet, Mukherjee commands awesome respect, and in the fighting for
ministerial berths, the buzz in the Congress high command was that
Mukherjee could get pretty much what he wanted. In many ways,
Mukherjee is now above it all, but it would probably be a fitting trib-
ute if he could present the most crucial budget that could lift India
out of the economic crisis. A multi-tasker, he is meticulous and loved
by bureaucrats because of his deep understanding of the brambled
world of red tape. Has been part of more than a hundred GoMs. This,
combined with a phenomenal memory which helps him remember
people and the nitty gritty of his ministry, and you know why he is a
workhorse of government. Though appreciative of reforms, he is also
a believer in the role of the state in terms of control and regulation. FINE-NUANCE MINISTER : Will Pranab Mukherjee walk in with the budget this year?

the powerful church in Kerala. He enjoys Sonia Gandhi’s trust
as much for his tough efficiency as for his incorruptible record.
Indeed, it was ‘St Antony’ that helped the party power through
in this election, when allegations surrounding the missile deal
with Israel threatened to send it skidding. Armour-plated by his
reputation, Antony was a valued Raksha Mantri in UPA gov-
Sharad lowing the debacle of Congress in the
1995 assembly polls, Pawar returned to
national politics as the leader of Oppo-
Pawar | 69 sition. When Sonia Gandhi assumed the
reins of Congress, Pawar resigned from
ASSETS | Rs 8.7cr
the party over her nationality issue
and set up NCP. In the 2009 LS polls, Kapil Sibal | 60
while he projected himself as a PM can-
didate, his party won just eight seats in
Maharashtra.
ASSETS | Rs 32 cr
EDUCATION | LLM (Harvard)

L
ernment, and one untainted by the sleaze of multi-million de- EDUCATION | B.Com (Pune University) ike the young Varun Gandhi of the BJP, Kapil Sibal is a
fence deals. His first stint in the Cabinet was under Narasimha published poet. While the quality of verse in both cases

I
Rao when he briefly held the office of civil supplies, consumer n his political career spanning well is rather strained (Sibal composes on his Blackberry), the
affairs and public distribution. Low-key, Antony is a good lis- over five-and-a-half decades, 69-year- two poets part company here. Secular and sophisticated, Sibal’s
tener but often criticised for not being decisive enough. old Sharad Pawar was not only chief style is a far throw from Varun’s immature posturing. A day
minister for four terms but also had the before counting day, he said, “The secular credentials of par-
rare distinction of holding that post at ties will be decided after the results are out.”

Ambika Soni | 65 the young age of 38. A commerce grad-

uate from Pune university, Pawar was
As it turned out, parties weren’t put to the test. Sibal him-
self coasted in from Delhi's Chandni Chowk with two lakh
first elected to the assembly in 1967 and votes between him and the next man. Genial, articulate and
ASSETS | Rs 7.5cr has never since been defeated. comfortable on television, the doting grandfather of an eight-
In 1972, he took over the reins of the month-old insists the baby bawls when “Dadu disappears from
EDUCATION | BA (Delhi University) home and food and civil supplies state the TV screen”. After his first wife, a successful IFS officer,
in his capacity as minister of state and died, he remarried. In 1991, he joined Congress and fought his

T
he stylish Soni is known to be extremely well organised
and receptive to new ideas. As tourism minister, she
launched the Incredible India charm offensive, which
substantially bumped up the backpacker flow. Her remarks
over the Ram Sethu got her into a spot of bother. A Sonia Gand-
hi loyalist and disciplined party worker, Soni has an under-
stated aesthetic and has recently developed a taste for Raghu-
rajour pattchitras.
held all key portfolios, including edu- first election from South Delhi in 1996, only to lose to BJP's
cation, agriculture, industries, labour Sushma Swaraj. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1998, but
and youth welfare. A former president keen to prove his electoral mettle, Sibal fought the Lok Sabha
of Congress (S), Pawar was elected to election from Chandni Chowk in 2003. He won, was named min-
Lok Sabha from his home constituency ister for science and technology, and delivered. Hands-on, the
Baramati in 1984 by the highest margin hot shot lawyer’s style is brisk and to the point.
but quit Lok Sabha the following year.
He was again elected to Parliament
in 1991 and given the defence ministry.
But he returned to state politics in 1993,
elected to the Maharashtra Legislative
Council and appointed CM in the af-
termath of the serial bomb blasts. Fol- DETECTING PAWAR AMBITIONS: Sharad Pawar

Ghulam Nabi smarter party colleagues — can both defend and define bank
nationalisation and economic reforms in the same breath.
But he can outsmart the opponents and beat them in their
Azad | 60 own game. A trusted confidant, he has been deputed many
times by the party leadership on difficult fire-fighting as-
ASSETS | Rs 85L
signments. When Rajiv Gandhi was jolted out of his dream
run as Prime Minister, Azad was the first
minister to quit the cabinet and joined
EDUCATION | Msc (Kashmir University)
the party organisation as a general

IT’S A SONI MOMENT: Ambika Soni with Sanjay Gandhi
A
zad rose in Congress politics in the secretary. At the peak of Punjab mili-
1970s as a Sanjay Gandhi follower. tancy, he launched a peace campaign
Trusted by the Gandhi family, the in the troubled state, organising
ambitious man from the Doda region public meetings in some of the most dan-
of Jammu and Kashmir climbed the lad- gerous places.
ders fast. Backed by Indira Gandhi, Azad After three years as Jammu and Kash-

P Chidambaram | 63 once won a Lok Sabha election from Ma-

harashtra.
A grassroots politician, he has a keen
ASSETS | Rs 10cr sense of a battle on the ground. He is not
a big-picture man who — like some of his
EDUCATION | LLB (Chennai), MBA (Harvard)
HANGING ON: Ghulam Nabi Azad
mir chief minister, he is back to the cen-
tre-stage of Congress politics. A hard-
nosed man known for breathing politics,
his image is that of an able administra-
tor who lacks finesse. SPIN DOCTOR: Kapil Sibal

SM Krishna | 77 Murli Deora | 72

M
ethodical and prompt, Chidambaram believes that the
devil is in the detail. Knows his onions —whether it is
high finance or terrorist dossiers — and is at home in
the world. He has a wealth of experience and became minis-
ter in 1985 as part of Rajiv Gandhi’s young team. Rose to star-
dom as finance minister in the UF govt, when in 1996-97, he
was lauded for his Dream Budget.
cabinet as petroleum minister in January
2006. His high point was countering the oil-
men’s strike with an iron fist, breaking his
ASSETS | Rs 3cr ASSETS | Rs 35cr image as a soft person.
He did his bit to shield consumers from
EDUCATION | LLB (Bangalore) EDUCATION | BA (Mumbai University) the impact of oil’s high run, but couldn’t stop
state-run oil companies from going into the

Always comes well prepared to Parliament, where he is
known as a suave orator. Has won laurels for his hard-nosed
handling of the home ministry which was thrust on him af-
ter the Mumbai terror siege. Has a fondness for quoting the
Tamilian poet Tiruvalluvar in his budget speeches. He has en-
tered Lok Sabha from Sivaganga constituency for a seventh
term this time, the first time was as party MP in 1984. A lawyer
by profession, Chidambaram did his schooling and college
(BSc and LLB) from Chennai. His big break as a cabinet min-
ister (Union finance minister) came in 1996 when he quit
Congress. He made it to a
cabinet post as a member
of TMC. His finance
ministry stint was
over in December
last year when in
the aftermath of
26/11, he had to
join the home
ministry.
I T
t could be coincidence or it could be destiny, but So- he industrialist and so-
manahalli in Mandya district in Karnataka has given cial worker-turned-politi-
the state two chief ministers — Kengal Hanumantha- cian began his innings
iah and S M Krishna. When Krishna was two years old, from the Bombay Municipal
his hometown was visited by Gandhiji, who asked the lit- Corporation way back in 1968
tle boy for his gold earrings for the freedom fund. This when he was elected corpora-
early encounter remains one of Krishna’s proud- tor. Later, in 1977, Deora was
est memories. elected mayor of Mumbai with
Under his watch (1999 to 2004), Bangalore was Shiv Sena’s support. Known for
transformed from a quiet city to India's silicon valley his close relations with politi-
and a magnet for tech talent. However, his focus on cians of all political parties,
Bangalore to the exclusion of all else cost him the ru- the arts graduate first contest-
ral vote and the Congress was sent packing in the 2004 ed the Lok Sabha polls from
assembly elections. Mumbai South constituency in
A seasoned politician, he has held a variety of posts 1980 but lost to the Janata Par-
from CM and Union minister, to Speaker, KPCC presi- ty's Ratansingh Rajda though,
dent and, most recently, governor of Maharashtra. The ANOTHER GOOD SERVE: S M Krishna in the subsequent election, De- MILEAGE MAN: Murli Deora and his wife with Lyndon Johnson
latter was considered a ceremonial punishment posting ora defeated BJP's Jayawan-
for an active politician. As governor, he was at constant loggerheads with the NCP and the tiben Mehta by a huge margin. red for the first time, posting historical quar-
Shiv Sena. The tennis buff was also criticised for spending more time at the French Open in He was re-elected in 1989, 1991 but lost to terly losses.
Paris than in Raj Bhavan. It was well known that he hankered to return to the hustle of Kar- Mehta in 1996 and 1999 before his son, Milind, Appointment of ONGC chairman also be-
nataka politics, where the Congress was in a shambles. defeated Mehta to go to the Lok Sabha from came controversial. Deora, who has literal-
He did go back but wasn't given a free hand and Congress lost the 2008 assembly elections. the same constituency in 2004. ly ruled the Mumbai Congress for
Krishna belongs to the powerful Vokkaliga community. A dapper epicurean who prac- Deora is a trusted aide of the Gandhi fam- well over a decade, is closely associated with
tises yoga, he likes to read and dress designer. As governor, he opposed the state govern- ily in Mumbai. He was elected to the Rajya the Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan and the Indian
ment’s campaign to shut down Mumbai's dance bars. Sabha in 2004 and was inducted in the union Red Cross Society.

Kamal Nath | 63 quent acquittal and return to the Lok Sabha

strengthened his CV as one of the few Con-
gress ministers who can contest and win elec-
ASSETS | Rs 14cr tions at a time when Congress had few such.
Nath, who has won eight elections from
EDUCATION | BCom (St Xavier’s College, the tribal constituency of Chhindwara, was
Calcutta) in 2004 assigned the job of projecting the coun-
try’s free-market image to the world. As com-

T
he Doon tag brought him close to Rajiv
Gandhi as well and when the young
Prime Minister faced a major challenge
from V P Singh in 1987, Kamal Nath moved
in as one of his close advisors. Pragmatic and
endowed with a talent for easy adaptability,
he survived the Narasimha Rao years at the
helm of the environment ministry with as
much skill as commerce in later years. An ac-
cused in the hawala scam and defeat of wife
Alka as his stand-in from the family bor-
HANDS-ON: P Chidambaram ough of Chhindwara marked the lowest
point in his political career. His subse-
merce minister, he upheld India’s cause vig-
orously at the WTO talks. It was one of the
high points in his years as minister. He pushed
aside opposition to open doors to give a fillip
to FDI flow, chased big export targets.
Infused with tremendous energy, he is a WORLD IS
big picture man, would like to delegate the
details to bureaucrats but can intervene when HIS STAGE
required. He has two children. Scion of a big
business family, Kamal Nath rose in Congress
politics as a member of Sanjay Gandhi’s group
of storm-troopers in the years leading to the
Emergency.
THE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAI **
FRIDAY, MAY 29, 2009 TIMES NATION | KNOW YOUR MINISTERS 13
Balancing Caste And Region Has Resulted In A Jumbo-Sized Council Of Ministers. And The Hard Work Has Just Begun

A GIANT GOVT FOR INDIA

Mukul Wasnik | 50 Mallikarjun M
M K Azhagiri | 58 Kharge | 67
SOCIAL JUSTICE & EMPOWERMENT
CHEMICALS & FERTILIZERS
EDUCATION | MBA LABOUR & EMPLOYMENT
ASSETS | Rs 31 Lakh EDUCATION | Graduate ASSETS | Rs 19.4cr
EDUCATION | BA, LLB ASSETS | Rs 5.1cr

M T
ukul’s main qualification is that he is the he DMK strongman in southern the party is on the rise.

A
son of veteran MP Balkrishna Wasnik, Tamil Nadu, Azhagiri till recently Azhagiri, who moved to Madurai in Dalit leader and socialist, Kharge start-
who was elected from reserved Buldhana was perceived to be the only ob- 1980 to start an edition of the party or- ed his political career as a student
parliamentary constituency in the backward Vi- stacle to his younger brother M K Stal- gan, ‘Murasoli’ in the temple town, took leader in the Government Arts College
darbha region. He was first elected to the Lok in's taking over the mantle of chief min- on party seniors in southern Tamil in Gulbarga. He practised law before enter-
Sabha from Buldhana in 1984, when he was the istership in Tamil Nadu. Nadu and emerged a power centre. He ing the political arena.
youngest Member of Parliament. In the subse- However, sudden was arrested in con- A debutante to Lok Sabha, Kharge has held
quent election in 1989, he lost to Sukhdev Kale. sibling bonhomie at SOUTHERN STRONGMAN nection with the mur-
the DMK chief ’s der of a former DMK
Gopalapuram residence has prompted minister, T Kiruttinan during the erst-
this relentless Stalin baiter to set his while Jayalalithaa regime, but was ac-
sights on the powerhouse in Delhi. It ap- quitted last year by a court in Chittoor.
pears his march to Delhi will clear the The CM’s elder son had never held a par-
political roadblock for Stalin, the peren- ty post and was only recently rewarded
nial prince-in-waiting. With DMK’s suc- with the post of south zone organising
cessive triumphs in its weak terrain of secretary after the hat-trick victories in
AIMING HIGH: Azhagiri will clear the path for Stalin in Chennai south Tamil Nadu, Azhagiri’s clout in bypolls in Madurai district.

Virbhadra Singh | 75 G K Vasan | 44

STEEL SHIPPING
EDUCATION | PG (Delhi University) EDUCATION | Graduate (Chennai)
ASSETS | Rs 22.5cr

V
asan may just have the qual-

THE GOOD SON
He wrested the seat
in 1991, only to lose it HARDY FIGHTER
in 1996 and again win
in 1998. Wasnik lost the 2004 election to Shiv
Sena’s Anandrao Adsul. Following delimitation,
he shifted from Buldhana to Ramtek, a reserved
constituency in Nagpur region. A good organ-
izer, Wasnik was the president of the National
Students Union of India and also minister of
state for human resources under Rajiv Gandhi.
T
hrice chief minister of Himachal
Pradesh, the Kullu royal family mem-
ber has considerable administrative
experience. From the old school of politics,
he fought his first Lok Sabha election in
1962. He will be inclined to work cautious-
ly but is a thorough worker.
A former Stephanian, he was the
only Congress leader to win from Himachal
Pradesh in the just-concluded Lok
Sabha polls.
He defeated BJP’s HILL KING
Maheshwar Singh by
nearly 14,000 votes in the Mandi con-
stituency. A Rajput leader from the Bushehr
royal family, Virbhadra was elected to the
Lower House of Parliament for the fifth
time. He has represented his constituency
in 1962, 1967, 1972 and 1980.
YOUNGER DAYS: Virbhadra Singh
ifying age to represent the
youthful facet of the Cabi-
net. But he is neither an aggressive
turf warrior nor a techie like some
other young faces in Congress. REWARDING LOYALTY
With his slow gait and suave
manners, he is like his famous fa- the record of winning continuously from Gur-
ther, G K Moopanar, who worked mitkal assembly constituency in Gulbarga dis-
his way up in the party ladder with trict from 1972 to 2004. In 2008, he had to change
his back-room manoeuvres. But his constituency to Chitapur as Gurmitkal
unlike his father, Vasan nurses MR AMBITIOUS was dereserved under delimitation. A CM-in-
lofty ambitions and lobbies hard waiting whenever a
for positions. Congress government DALIT VOICE
Two years ago, Vasan gave up ORGANIZATION MAN has been formed in Kar-
the post of the Tamil Nadu Con- nataka, he was dejected when the party lost
gress president to join Manmohan’s ministry, though, in a little- badly in the 2008 elections.
known portfolio of statistics. After Chidambaram’s exit from TMC He has been steadfast in his loyalty to the
and Moopanar's death in August 2001, Vasan took over the man- Congress and has kept himself clear of po-
tle and steered the regional outfit back to the Congress fold. litical controversies.

Subodh Kant Sahay | 58 Pawan Kumar Bansal | 60

FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS
EDUCATION | LLB (Ranchi) ASSETS | Rs 2.3cr EDUCATION | LLB (Panjab University) ASSETS | Rs 3.8cr

T I
his is his second con- In the earlier Cabinet, Sa- s articulate and can work hard. for asking questions in Parliament.
secutive Lok Sabha term hay was in independent charge His extensive experience in Par- He has also held various positions at
from Ranchi. As a stu- of food processing industries. liament, where he has been chief different levels in the Congress and
dent politician, he was drawn Sahay has been chairman of whip of Congress, is a bonus. As min- has been member in many Joint Par-
to Jaiprakash Narayan in 1974. the non -aligned student and ister of state for finance liamentary Committees
Sahay was thrice MLA in youth organisation (NASYO) he has had an exposure
Bihar assem- and was to a key ministry work-
TRIED & TESTED like Indian Medical
Council (Amendment)
bly and a m e m b e r, ing with P Chidambaram and Pranab Bill, Central Vigilance Commission
Janata Dal
JHARKHAND WARRIOR preparatory Mukherjee. Bill, 1999 etc.
MP. From 1989 to 1991, he served committee of world youth fes- He was a member of various Par- A confidant of the Gandhi fami-
as minister of state, home af- tival. He is married to an ac- liamentary committees including ly, Bansal was re-elected to the 15th
fairs and then was Union min- tress. He has been elevated the famous Cash-for-Query Com- Lok Sabha for the fourth time in 2009.
STAR POWER: Subodh Kant Sahay (right) with actors ister of state, information and from MoS to Cabinet in the mittee, which was formed after a Soft spoken and a suave politician,
Mahima Chaudhary and Ronit Roy during an election rally broadcasting and home affairs. same ministry. sting operation showing parliamen- 60-year old Bansal is a graduate in
tarians accepting money on camera science and law. THE VETERAN: Bansal with kin

MINISTERS OF STATE MoS | THE OTHERS

Jyotiraditya Scindia | 38 Agatha Kongkal Sangma | 28

COMMERCE & INDUSTRY RURAL DEVELOPMENT
EDUCATION | MA, MBA (Harvard, Stanford) EDUCATION | MA (Nottingham University ), LLB ASSETS | Rs 66.4lakh
ASSETS | Rs 14.9cr

F
ormer Lok Sabha Speaker P I have always been identified by

T
he Gwalior king’s coronation was held
a few days after his father Madhavrao
Scindia died in an air crash in Sep-
tember 2001. Four months on, he contested
from Guna in a bypoll and won by more than
450,000 votes. Re-elected to 14th LS, he won
the seat again though his margin reduced to
68,000 votes. Accommodated in Manmohan
Singh government as minister of state.
After graduation, he interned in the UN
Economic Development Cell and had a stint
as investment banker as well. One of the ear-
ly young Turks, is known to be close to AICC
general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
A Sangma’s daughter, Agatha
Sangma is the youngest min-
ister in India. The 28-year-old is a
lawyer, environmentalist and am-
ateur photographer, who got a feel
of grassroots politics trailing her
father during election campaigns.
She has just won the Tura Lok Sab-
ha seat for the second term. A law
graduate registered with the Del-
hi Bar Council, Agatha says she
has always been proud to be the
STARTING YOUNG: Agatha Sangma with father P A Sangma daughter of her illustrious father.
Shashi Tharoor | 53 D Napoleon | 46
EXTERNAL AFFAIRS SOCIAL JUSTICE & EMPOWERMENT
my surname Sangma, she says. She
is the youngest from the politics-
savvy Sangma family after her fa-
ther and two elder brothers to have
entered into the electoral politics.
I am very environmentally con-
scious and I would like to include Congress leader from Andhra Pradesh Panabaka Lakshmi takes oath
women in the uplift of the envi-
ronment, Agatha says adding E Ahamed | 71 | Railways Namo Narain Meena | 65 |
she has plans to make use of the Finance
Mullappalli Ramachandran |
traditional skills of women, like
53 | Home Affairs A Sai Prathap | 64 | Steel
weaving and organic farming in
this regard. Sisir Adhikari | 66 | Rural M M Pallam Raju | 46 |
Development Defence
Dinesh Trivedi | 59 | Health
& Family Welfare
Preneet Kaur | 64 | External
Affairs

EDUCATION | PhD (Tufts University) ASSETS | Rs 20.4cr EDUCATION | Graduate Harish Rawat | 62 | Labour
& Employment
ASSETS | Rs 13.1cr

F
ormer UN under-secretary general Shashi Tharoor Saugata Roy | 62 | Urban

D
stunned political observers by winning from the Kerala Napoleon started learning the lessons of Development
capital by a margin of 99,998 votes. Born in London to politics from his uncle and state trans-
parents from Palakkad in Kerala, Tharoor completed his PhD port minister K N Nehru, when he was Vincent Pala | 41 | Water Jitin Prasada | 36 |
at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts Uni- his personal assistant. Napoleon subsequently Resources Petroleum & Natural Gas
versity, Massachusetts. His doctorate came at age 22, a Fletch- emerged as a key person responsible for man-
er record. Tharoor began his career with the UN in 1978, head- aging the party’s propaganda and managed to
K V Thomas | 63 | Sultan Ahmed | 56 | Tourism
ing the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees of- get an MLA ticket to contest from Villivakkam Agriculture; Consumer
Affairs, Food & Public S S Palanimanickam | 58 |
fice in Singapore. He rose to the rank of UN under-secretary assembly segment in 2001. He won the elections Finance
general in 2002 and was a strong contender for the post of UN at the peak of his career in Tamil filmdom. Distribution
secretary-general when Kofi Annan demitted office. Though he failed to repeat the success sto- Gurudas Kamat | 55 | Mohan Jatua | 71 | I&B
A prolific writer, Tharoor is author of ‘The Great Indian ry in 2006 from the Mylapore assembly seg- Communications & IT
ROYAL YOUNG TURK Novel’ and ‘The Elephant, The Tiger and the Cellphone’. THE AUTHOR ment falling within Chennai city, Napoleon
S Gandhiselvan | 46 | Health
managed to get the consent of the DMK high Ajay Maken | 45 | Home & Family Welfare
command to contest in the parliamentary elec- Affairs S Jagathrakshakan | 61 | I&B
Sachin Pilot | 31 tions in 2009 from Peramblur constituency,
which Union minister A Raja had earlier con-
V Narayanasamy | 61 |
Planning; Parliamentary
Bharatsinh Solanki | 55 |
Power
tested and won.
COMMUNICATIONS & IT Affairs
While his uncle’s field Mukul Roy | 55 | Shipping
work helped him to a
EDUCATION | MBA (Pennsylvania Univ) ASSETS | Rs 4.6cr great extent, Napo- Tusharbhai Chaudhary | 42 |
leon’s charisma as a Tribal Affairs

H
e made a mark in his con-
stituency Dausa in 2004 as
an “effective administrator”
and a leader with a vision.
The Wharton Business School
MBA started young, entering pol-
itics for the first time in 2004 and
becoming part of the electoral fray
as a 26-year-old.
The Gujjar leader won Dausa
by 1.2 lakh votes, his father late
Rajesh Pilot’s seat for five consec-
utive terms.
THE PROFESSIONAL: Sachin Pilot with wife Sarah He has been a member of Par-
liament's standing committee on film actor, playing off-
home affairs, also a member of the beat character roles, also Mahadev Khandela | 65 |
consultative committee in the min- helped him emerge suc- Road Transport & Highways
istry of civil aviation. cessful from this back- Arun Yadav | 35 | Youth
Education in rural areas is a ward constituency. A D Purandeswari | 50 | Affairs & Sports
priority for him and he runs a trust multi-faceted personality
Commerce & Industry Prateek Patil | 35 | Heavy
that provides monthly pensions to that he is, Napoleon also bal-
physically and mentally chal- anced his political career Srikant Jena | 58 | Chemicals Industries & Public
lenged and other underprivileged. with the filmdom & Fertilizers Enterprises
Pilot has a professional pilots’ li- and the informa-
cense and plays squash. tion technology Panabaka Lakshmi | 50 | Pradeep Jain | 49 | Rural
Sachin is married to National companies Textiles Development
Conference leader Farooq Abul- that he was K H Muniyappa | 61 | R P N Singh | 39 | Road
lah’s daughter Sarah. running. Railways Transport & Highways
12 TIMES NATION | KNOW YOUR MINISTERS * THE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAI
FRIDAY, MAY 29, 2009

After Last Week’s Swearing-In Of 19 Ministers, India Finally Got To See Its Full Government. TOI Profiles The Key Players

A SMALL STEP FOR MAN

MOS | INDEPENDENT CHARGE
Illustrations: Ajit Ninan Sanjay Sekhri

Farooq Abdullah | 72
Praful Patel | 52 NEW & RENEWABLE ENERGY
EDUCATION | Doctor of Medicine (Jaipur)
CIVIL AVIATION
ASSETS | Rs 9.7cr
EDUCATION | Graduate (Mumbai)

B
orn in 1936 in Soura on the outskirts of Sri-
ASSETS | Rs 90cr nagar, Farooq Abdullah has served as chief

I
ndustrialist-turned-politician Praful
Patel’s election from Bhandara-Gondia
has surprised not only his rivals, but
his own partymen. Initially, Patel decided
not to contest the polls. But on Sharad Pawar’s
insistence, he filed his nomination papers. He
was first elected to the Gondia municipal council in
1985 and later to the Lok Sabha in 1991, 1996 and 1998. In April 2000,
he was elected to the Rajya Sabha. When Patel lost the 2004 LS elec-
tion to the BJP’s Shishupal Patle, his rivals felt it was end of his po-
litical career, but they were proved wrong. He was appointed civil
aviation minister where his poor handling of the Air India-Indian
Airlines merger led to huge losses and was severely criticised.
Jairam Ramesh | 55
ENVIRONMENT & FORESTS
EDUCATION | BTECH, MS (MIT, US)
minister of J&K thrice besides having served
as MP during his father Shiekh Mohammad Ab-
dullah's reign as CM. After a stint in Kashmir Health
Department, Farooq worked as a general practi-
tioner in UK for over a decade in the mid-60s, where
he also became a member of Jammu and Kashmir
Liberation Front. He
took over as CM soon af- HEALING TOUCH
ter the death of his father
in 1982. In 1987, Farooq entered into an accord with
former PM Rajiv Gandhi and fought state assembly
elections in alliance against Muslim United Front,
which is attributed to the rise of militancy in Kash-
mir as the elections were alleged to be rigged.
After the 1996 elections, Farooq advocated greater
autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir and won the 2008
assembly elections on this plank. Farooq's wife Mol-
THE DOC FROM THE VALLEY: Newly-inducted cabinet minister Farooq Abdullah with his son and J&K CM Omar ly is of British origin. He has three daughters and a
Abdullah, daughter-in-law Payal and grandsons during the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan son — J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah.

T
ech savvy, prefers to work with In-
dian classical music playing in the
background. Is energetic and a Vilasrao Deshmukh | 64 Dayanidhi Maran | 42
modernizer. Disciplined worker, sent in
reports to the prime minster regularly in HEAVY INDUSTRIES & PUBLIC ENTERPRISES TEXTILES
past government.
Ramesh was made MoS commerce when EDUCATION | BA, BSC, LLB (Pune) EDUCATION | BA Economics
Manmohan Singh became PM for the first time in
ASSETS | Rs 2.6cr ASSETS | Rs 3.7cr
May 2004. He was mostly involved with the works related to the plan-

tation sector, which was reeling under crisis. He attended to the
problems of plantations not sitting at Udyog Bhavan. He would vis-
it the growing areas in the hinterland and interact with growers.
Impressed with his approach, PM gave him an additional portfolio
of power but that also had a senior minister in Sushilkumar Shinde.
Prithviraj Chavan | 63
V D
ilasrao Deshmukh created history in Maharashtra politics, MK president M Karunanidhi’s grand-
being the first chief minister to stay in office for such a long nephew shot into political limelight on
time, second only to veteran Congress leader Vasantrao Naik. his first foray into politics.
Deshmukh has broken the record previously held by NCP pres- Few knew about his political ambitions or
ident Sharad Pawar. By and large, it had been assumed that no capability before he was fielded in Chennai Cen-
one will be able to set aside Pawar’s record in view of uncertainty tral Lok Sabha constituency, the seat of his late
over the tenure of chief ministers.
However, Deshmukh had to leave office unceremoniously. Just
father Murasoli Maran.

before the 2004 assembly elections, he was replaced by Dalit leader

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Sushilkumar Shinde and Congress pres- REBEL WITH A CAUSE: Vilasrao Deshmukh greets President Pratibha
EDUCATION | BE, MS (BITS, Pilani and UCLA) ident Sonia Gandhi then gave no rea- GREAT SURVIVOR Patil after taking the oath of office
sons for his removal.
ASSETS | Rs 0.17cr Post-2004 assembly polls, Deshmukh was re-appointed CM, but to the state assembly in 1980, Deshmukh was the president of the

W
ide-ranging interests and a was given marching orders in the wake of the 26/11 terror attack Osmanabad zilla parishad. In his political career spanning well
quick grasp of complex subjects on Mumbai. Way back in 1974, when he entered politics, he was over three decades, Deshmukh was always aggressive not only
makes him an energetic politi- the member of the Babhalgaon panchayat samiti in Latur dis- against the Opposition members, but even against then-CM Shiv-
cian. As MoS in PMO he coordinated some trict. Later he was appointed its sarpanch and subsequently, elect- ajirao Patil Nilangekar and had also raised a banner of revolt
aspects of govt-party work. As minister in- ed member of the Osmanabad zilla parishad. Before his election against the leadership of Sharad Pawar.
charge of personnel he has a hang of admin-
istrative matters. He has gained organizational ex-
perience as well. He is a Rajya Sabha MP while his parents were
parliamentarians for 17 years. The high-profile leader has a BE
(Hons) from BITS, Pilani (Rajasthan) and also a MS from Uni-
Kumari Selja | 47 Kantilal Bhuria | 58
versity of California, Berkeley. he will also hold charge in the HOUSING, URBAN POVERTY TRIBAL AFFAIRS
ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions and min-
ister of state in the ministry of parliamentary affairs.
ALLEVIATION & TOURISM EDUCATION | MA, LLB | ASSETS | Rs 3.1cr
EDUCATION | MA, MPhil (DU, Panjab University)
Salman Khursheed | 56
K
antilal Bhuria (58), who was long and hard turf battle with Dilip
ASSETS | Rs 4.7cr elected from Ratlam (ST) seat Singh Bhuria of BJP, is a tribal. Com-

E
fficient and unobstrusive. Despite her rela- after Jhabua got merged in the ing from a region dominated by Bhils
CORP AFFAIRS; MINORITY AFFAIRS tively young age, she has been a MoS in the P constituency post-delimitattion, is one and Bhialas (tribals who miscegenat-
EDUCATION | BA, MA (Oxford) V Narasimha Rao government from 1991-96. of former Madhya ed with Parmar and
She has proved to be a hardy winner of Lok Sab- Pradesh CM Digvijay TRIBAL WARRIOR Solanki Rajputs of Gu-
ASSETS | Rs 2.6cr ha battles and is ready for demanding adminis- Singh’s handpicked men. jarat), Bhuria has been

T
he suave Khursheed is a third-gen- trative tasks. The daughter of former Union min-
eration Congressman. Grandson of ister Chaudhary Dalbir Singh, Selja is a business-
former president Zakir Hussain, his like, no-nonsense person, even if soft spoken.
long stint at Oxford couldn’t make him an Selja, who is the first ever woman Dalit Cabi-
outsider in India’s hinterland politics. He net minister from Haryana, also seems to have been
has served two terms as UPCC chief and was elevated from her earlier MoS avatar to counter a
first elected to Lok Sabha from Farrukhabad in growing Mayawati and BSP presence in the state.
1991. Made MoS for external affairs in the Rao government, the Incidentally, besides Punjab it was only Selja’s
high point was his diplomatic win over Pakistan at a human rights Ambala constituency
convention in Geneva. An electoral win has been eluding Khur- in Haryana, which wit- STEADY PROGRESS
sheed since then though he has been in the core of UP politics. He nessed mayhem as fol-
makes a resounding re-entry to the Lok Sabha by pipping BSP lowers of Dera Sachkhand protested the attack on
strong man Naresh Agarwal. one of their Vienna heads.
Congress, which now says Selja will be its Dalit
Krishna Tirath | 54 face in the land of Babu Jagjivan Ram, also wants
to keep non-Jats, especially SCs, happy and in its
fold. It (Selja’s Cabinet berth) shows that Congress
WOMEN & CHILD DEVELOPMENT is very much serious about Dalits, says spokesman
EDUCATION | MA, BEd (Delhi University) Ved Prakash Vidrohi. Inside the party, too, her in-
duction in cabinet is being seen as an attempt to
ASSETS | Rs 2.1cr ‘‘balance’ the power structure in the Congresss
Bhuria was minister of state for con- getting elected from Jhabua since 1999.
sumer affairs as well as food and pub- Even through the saffron wave in MP
lic distribution in the previous Man- got over in 2003, Jhabua has remained
mohan Singh government. a Congress stronghold, thanks to a re-
Kantilal Bhuria, who has fought a sourceful tribal boss like Bhuria. THE TECH MAN: Dayanidhi Maran with wife Priya
However, within a short while, he came into
his own as a high-profile minister for infor-
mation technology and communications.
He also inherited his father’s mantle as the
leader's eyes and ears in New Delhi.
Maran’s performance, especially in the tele-
com sector, was overshadowed by a break-up
within the family that was caused by a contro-
versial opinion poll published by a Tamil dai-
ly belonging to a media group headed by his
b r o t h e r,
FAMILY CONNECTION K a l a n i t h i
Maran.
The survey said majority of the people want-
ed Karunanidi’s son M K Stalin to succeed him

K
rishna Tirath comes from an old state unit, where chief minister Bhupinder Singh and showed his elder son M K Azhagiri in poor
family of Congress loyalists. She Hooda has been trying to increase his influence af- light, triggering violence in Madurai in which
became a member of the Metropol- ter taking over reins of the state in 2005. three employees of the newspaper were killed.
itan Council (predecessor of the Delhi as- But he is clearly back in Karunanidhi’s good
sembly) in 1985 and has been a member of Kantilal Bhuria campaigns for the Lok Sabha polls books after a patch-up a few months ago.
all assemblies till 2003. She was social welfare
minister in the first Sheila Dikshit cabinet in
1998 and became the deputy state speaker in 2003. She stood out
during her state stint as someone with a mind of her own and not A Raja | 46 forced to quit the Union Cabinet
two years ago and became a close
overawed by Dikshit. In fact when the state secretariat shifted confidant of Karunanidhi.
from Vidhan Sabha to Players’ Building in 2001, Tirath was the COMMUNICATIONS & IT Barely a few months later, Raja
only one to defy her boss and continued to function from her old became “Spectrum Raja” as he was
office on the pretext that it is more accessible to people. EDUCATION | BSc, ML embroiled in a controversy over al-
ASSETS | Rs 1.3cr leged irregularities in the sale of
Dinsha Patel | 72 telecom bandwidth.

T
his is a politically torrid sea-
son for this 46-year-old Dalit
SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES MP from Tamil Nadu’s
EDUCATION | Matriculate coolest constituency of Nilgiris.
Groomed by the late Murasoli
ASSETS | Rs 2.3cr Maran and now a loyalist of Ra-
Yet, chief minister Karunanid-
hi stoutly defended Raja and offered
him the safe seat of Nilgiris in this
election, when his pocketborough
of Perambalur was de-reserved by
the Constituency Delimitation

D
insha Patel is a household name in jathi Ammal, moth- Commission. In the
the Patel-dominated Charotar re- er of Kanimozhi, KARUNA FACTOR election campaign,
gion, famous for its tobacco and co- Raja was elevated to the spectrum contro-
operatives. MoS petroleum in the previous cabinet rank with the environment versy was the hot campaign theme
Manmohan government, Dinsha rose from portfolio in 2004. in Nilgiris, yet he pulled off an
the ranks through his knack of connecting Earlier, Raja, known for his or- electoral triumph. “People have re-
people with the government. Once considered atorial skills, had served in the ru- jected the false campaign over
among Congress’ formidable contestants, in recent years, his elec- ral development and health min- spectrum,” he thundered.
toral score has been on the decline. But he remains a fighter. In 2007 istries as minister of state in the He is entering the Lok Sabha for
he was the only Congress leader who dared to fight CM Narendra United Front and Vajpayee regimes. the fourth time in a row since 1996.
Modi on the Maninagar assembly seat, a defeat that was considered He got the powerful telecom min- A Raja is one of DMK’s propagan-
more of an electoral feat. He first got elected as a MP from Kheda NO-NONSENSE MINISTER istry when Dayanidhi Maran was da secretaries. OUT OF THE SPECTRUM
constituency in 1996, the latest being his fifth consecutive term.

Sriprakash Jaiswal | 64 M S Gill | 72 on various aspects, including ending the long-standing

controversial reign of K P S Gill as Indian Hockey Fed-
eration president in the wake of the double whammy of
COAL; STATISTICS YOUTH AFFAIRS & SPORTS the national team’s failure to qualify for the Beijing
EDUCATION | Intermediate (Kanpur) Olympics and the bribery scandal involving IHF secre-
EDUCATION | BA (Hons), MA, Phd (Punjab, Cambridge) tary Jyothikumaran.
ASSETS | Rs 3.1cr ASSETS | Rs 2.5cr And, of course, it was a golden moment for the 72-year-

S
riprakash Jaiswal grew in impor- old Gill as sports minister when India won three medals in

tance after he snatched back the Kan-
pur constituency from saffron grip in
1999. He retained the seat in 2004 and was
immediately given a berth in Manmohan
ministry as MoS home affairs. His political ca-
reer began when he was elected Kanpur mayor in
1989 and served till 1992. A businessman, Jaiswal has been one of
the key Congress leaders from the state where the party’s stars were
fading after the 1989 debacle in both Lok Sabha and assembly elec-
tions. He was appointed UPCC chief by Sonia Gandhi in 1999 and
held the post for over a year.
I
t’s quite a promotion for former chief election com-
missioner M S Gill — who was a minister of state (in-
dependent charge) in the previous UPA regime.
The elevation to Cabinet rank for the former MoS for
sports and youth affairs is certainly a recognition of his
special efforts to tone up within just one year the sports
ministry which seemed to be directionless earlier.
Though it was a late entry for the retired IAS officer
of the Punjab cadre to the previous UPA government when
he replaced Mani Shankar Aiyar in April last year, he im-
mediately made his presence felt by taking a tough stand
HE’S A SPORT: Will sports get another Gill dose?
the Beijing Olympics. The
tenure of the Cambridge Uni- SPORTING CHANCE
versity-educated Gill, the only
former CEC who entered Rajya Sabha and became a min-
ister at the Centre, in the sports ministry also stands out
for the bold steps he took. He openly articulated the tough
stand when India decided not to send its cricket team to
Pakistan for the test series in the aftermath of 26/11. He
made it mandatory for sportspersons to receive honours
like Padma awards in person after M S Dhoni and Harb-
hajan Singh skipped the ceremony this year.
THE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAI *
SATURDAY, MAY 23, 2009 TIMES NATION | KNOW YOUR MINISTER 17

OLD HANDS ON NEW DECK

Meira Kumar | 64 As the UPA government gets down to business, TOI profiles some S Jaipal Reddy | 67
ASSETS | Rs 10cr veterans in Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet who will need all their ASSETS | Rs 5.6cr
EDUCATION | MA.LLB (Delhi University) experience to tackle the challenges that come up in the next 5 years EDUCATION | MA, BA JOURNALISM (Osmania University)
T T
he former IFS officer joined the civil services in he soft-spoken Reddy was urban development min-
1973 and served at embassies in Spain, United King- ister in the previous cabinet. He was moved from
dom and Mauritius. She took the electoral plunge
in 1985 and was elected from Bijnor in UP. The daughter Mamata I&B and culture ministry to urban development
where in no time SC order led to major sealing exercise
in the Capital. But he
Banerjee | 54 played calm and mini-
mized the political dam-
ASSETS | Rs 4.7L
age due to sealing. Served
the Congress well as an
EDUCATION | LLB (Calcutta University) able troubleshooter who
could talk his way through

FROM RIFLE SHOOTER TO TROUBLE SHOOTER
of Jagjivan Ram, the tall dalit leader who went on to be-
come the deputy PM, is a stickler for rules and norms
and is a quiet and effective worker, though non-assertive.
She has steered the middle path without being too ad-
venturous on policy.
Meira, an old hand, had her day in the sun when the
most sensitive of UPA promises in 2004 — reservation in
private sector — was tossed at her. That is when the qui-
et and suave face earned a reputation as a reservation
enthusiast. Kumar pursued industry with gusto, threat-
ening to legislate if the industry did not do it voluntari-
ly. Where Meira Kumar fails to score is her unwilling-
ness to assert and make a mark in a loud tone. Interest-
ingly, is an ace rifle shooter.
Anand Sharma | 56
ASSETS | Rs 2.5cr
Q
ueen of her neck of the woods,
the Bengal tigress is determined
to lengthen her stride. Irrational,
erratic and with a taste for hysteria
that many find distasteful, Mamata Baner-
jee was once defined by an episode in
which she threatened to strangle herself in
public if a party colleague with a criminal
record was given a ticket by local Congress
bosses. But that was in 1996. Tempered
now by a career of sharp upswings and mis-
erable troughs, Mamata now has a slightly
longer fuse.
In 1984, she debuted with a thumping win
against veteran Somnath Chatterjee in the
Lok Sabha polls after Indira Gandhi’s mur-
der. She was loved by the party leaders in
Delhi, including the young Rajiv Gandhi.
In 1998, disenchanted with what she
called a covert alliance between the power
brokers in the Congress and the CPM, she
broke away to start the Trinamool. The stat-
ed aim was to fight “Stalinist subjugation”
of the Left in Bengal. With a good showing
in the 1999 LS polls, Didi seemed to have got-
ten off to a spry start. But by the 2001 as-
sembly elections she had squandered the
goodwill and the reds romped home. Before
the elections, she had resigned as railway
minister and broken from the BJP-fronted
NDA government. Rudderless, Mamata
GRASSROOTS DIVA: She took on the Reds on their turf and won
seemed more sound and fury than serious
politician.
Defending the land and villagers of
Nandigram against the CPM last year was
her shining moment. Held up as personal-
ly incorruptible, she still lives in the ram-
shackle Harish Chatterjee Street home that
she shares with her extended family. In her
cotton sari and jhola, the diminutive grass-
roots diva is back in the reckoning.
a storm.
Credited with a no-
nonsense work ethic, Red-
dy oversaw the effective
implementation of the fat-
cat Jawaharlal Nehru Na-
tional Urban Renewal Mis- REDDY RECKONER
sion (JNNURM), closely
monitoring the big urban schemes. Word in the party
has it that he was eyeing the post of Speaker.
Chosen for the Best Parliamentarian Award in 1998,
Reddy is fluent in both English and Hindi, and can, in
schoolmaster fashion, scold and cajole a house of noisy
parliamentarians into being better behaved. Once a part
of Janata Dal, Reddy was I&B minister in the United
Front government and is credited for trying to give au-
tonomy to state-run Doordarshan. Prasar Bharati was
created as an independent body. Under successive gov-
ernments autonomy is now invisible.
M Veerappa Moily | 69
ASSETS | Rs 2.9cr
EDUCATION | LLB (Ernakulam)

EDUCATION | LLB (Himachal Pradesh)

Sushilkumar Shinde | 68 Vayalar Ravi | 72
O
ne of the founders of
NSUI, the student
wing of the Indian ASSETS | Rs 8.6cr ASSETS | Rs 0.5cr
National Congress, Anand
Sharma rose to become the EDUCATION | LLB (Mumbai University) EDUCATION | MA, LLB (Ernakulam)

M A
President of the Indian aharashtra’s first Dalit chief minister contested the Lok n old Congress hand from Kerala, Ravi was an able Union
Youth Congress in 1985. He Sabha polls from a re- minister for overseas Indian affairs and minister for parlia-
worked closely with late PM served seat for the first mentary affairs in the outgoing cabinet.
Rajiv Gandhi. Educated in time this year. Shinde is un- His hometown of Vayalar has been the vortex of many peasant
Shimla, Sharma was first abashed about having flunked struggles, and Ravi was founder-president of the Kerala Students
elected to Parliament in 1984 his matriculation twice and Union. A contemporary of A K Antony, the two fought shoulder-
at the age of 31. starting life as a peon in So- to-shoulder to build the state’s Youth Congress. AUTHOR, POET, LAWYER, LEADER
He has been spokesper- lapur court. While working as In 1971, he was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1971 from Chi-

son for the party for six years and elevated to the
council of ministers with responsibility for Foreign
Affairs in January, 2006. He also assumed the addi-
tional charge of Union Minister of State for Infor-
mation & Broadcasting in October 2008. A decisive
man, Sharma devotes time for activities related to
autism and learning disabilities. He helped re-ener-
gise India’s relationship with Africa and Latin Amer-
ica and the recent success of the UPA’s Bharat Nir-
man campaign has been a feather in his cap.
On the downside, emergency guidelines for me-
dia drafted by his ministry landed the government
in an embarrassing soup besides the recent public
row in Prasar Bharati board.
H
a bailiff, Shinde studied for rayinkil, which after the new electoral boundaries, falls in the At- is political career has seen both highs and lows.
and cleared his law exam from tingal constituency. He was re-elected in 1977 and in 1982 be- Belonging to a numerically-weak backward com-
Mumbai University. Before be- came state home minister, but stepped down munity, M Veerappa Moily, born in the Dakshi-
ing elected to the state as- four years later over differences with chief minis- na Kannada district of south Karnataka, is a qualified
sembly in 1974, Shinde was a ter K Karunakaran. Ravi has also exchanged lawyer and fought his first assembly elections from
sub-inspector with the Mum- words, strong words, with the worthies at the Karkala in 1974. He was handpicked by former Kar-
bai crime branch. Guruvayur temple about purification rituals. nataka CM D Devaraj Urs for the small-scale industries
After he was made minis- His wife Maria Francis, popularly known as portfolio and later served in various successive Con-
ter of state for sports and Mercy Ravi, is a columnist and former gress governments. The first major hitch in his career
youth welfare, there was no MLA from Kottayam. came in 1984, when as leader of the Opposition, he was
looking back. He set a record As minister for overseas Indian affairs accused by an independent MLA of trying to bribe Jana-
by presenting nine consecu- he has presided over Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas ta Party MLAs to defect to the Congress.
tive state budgets. Although and is said to be keen on retaining the ministry The infamous Moily tapes surfaced soon leading to
elected to the Lok Sabha in that allowed him frequent Gulf trips. Moily fighting the stain of corruption for eight years af-
1999, he returned to Maha- He has been criticised for reducing the ter that. In 1992, as CM of Karnataka, he surfaced again,
rashtra as CM in 2003. ministry to non-resident Kerealite af- when he successfully introduced Common Entrance Test

B K Handique | 74 Under his leadership, the

Congress performed well but
fairs and accused of sluggishness
in amending the emigration act
(CET) for the state’s professional educational institutions.
His loyalty ensured he was saved from political oblivion
Shinde was later shunted to and giving voting rights to NRIs. by Sonia Gandhi who inducted him into the CWC.
ASSETS | Rs 1.5cr Andhra Pradesh as governor. WEDDING VOWS BEFORE PUBLIC VOWS He has to his credit labour In 2004, despite having lost the LS polls from Man-
A year later, he was rehabil- agreements and social galore, the author-poet has been utilised by the UPA
EDUCATION | MA (Calcutta University) itated at the Centre as power minister. He launched four ultra- s e c u r i t ya g r e e m e n t s government and the Congress. Appointed as the Chair-
mega power projects and managed to link the regional grid but that will benefit over- man of the Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC).

S
on of the great Sanskrit scholar and founder vice- fell terribly short of targets for capacity addition and rural elec- seas workers. Of the 13 reports, he has already submitted eight.
chancellor of Gauhati University, Krishna Kanta trification. A published writer, Shinde was president of the pres-
Handique, Bijoy Krishna is a tea planter and politi- tigious Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, a literary convention of
cian who won from Jorhat this time for the sixth con-
secutive time. He started his political career in 1972 as
Marathi writers.
C P Joshi | 58
an MLA and went on to become AICC member. Shifted
to the RS in 1980 and was elected to the LS in 1991. ASSETS | Rs 2cr
Was made MoS, defence and parliamentary
affairs and later MoS, ministry of chem- EDUCATION | PhD Psychology (Udaipur), MSc Physics

icals & fertilizers and ministry of par-
liamentary affairs in the last UPA gov-
ernment. Known for his organiza-
tional skills, he couldn’t make a mark
as minister. Also known for his aris-
tocratic style of functioning and is
rarely seen among the masses. “I am
willing to take any responsibility, what-
ever the party thinks appropriate for me.
I am here to serve my people,” his
baritone is a winner. He organ-
izes cultural activities among
tea garden workers and pro-
vides hostel facility to tribal
students of tea estates.
C
ongress won the assembly polls in Rajasthan, but the party’s state
head, C P Joshi, lost — by one vote. He took the blow in his stride,
contested Lok Sabha polls from Bhilawara, and won. This time, by
over one lakh votes. Joshi took over from B D Kalla as PCC chief in 2007,
at a time when discontent in the state Congress unit had reached a peak.
Intolerant of carelessness, Joshi is known for his straight-talk. The
perfectionist can be outspoken, upsetting party members. He also en-
joys a clean image and is known for his ideas on rural development and
education. And that has earned him respect from different quarters, in-
cluding from Sonia Gandhi. Joshi, who began his political career as a
firebrand student leader, was first elected MLA in 1980. He has been
MLA four times since and has served as a state cabinet minister in the
previous Ashok Gehlot government (1998-2003). He held various port-
folios, including education, panchayati raj and rural development.
THE PEOPLE’S POLICEMAN
OUTSPOKEN & STRAIGHTFORWARD

Portfolios: Arjun & Bhardwaj DMK awaits ‘acceptable’ ADMISSION NOTICE (2009-10)

snubbed, Sharma elevated offer from Congress (UiS 3 of UGCA 1956)

LINGAYA’S UNIVERSITY
trurcrii
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rc g• !I Ir1 I .vr L ] I IN’
1ulYii. I..,n., rDL .)
ur.

New Delhi: Veteran Congressman
from Andhra V Kishore Chandra
Deo, who is in the running for the
Lok Sabha Speaker’s post, is an ex-
perienced parliamentarian and had
headed the committee that probed
the cash-for-votes scam during the
UPA’s trust vote on the nuclear deal.
Friday’s list also pointed to some
omissions, like veteran Arjun Singh,
whose daughter contested as an In-
dependent from Sidhi. Similarly, sen-
ior Jat leader Shishram Ola seems to
be out, as does law minister Bhard-
waj. Though there will be a second
round of inductions next week, these
leaders are unlikely to make it. The
next round is expected to fill in the
gaps left on Friday—for instance, rep-
resentation from UP where the party
made a good show against heavy odds.
If the composition of the cabinet
sworn in on Friday is anything to go
by, the Rajya Sabha representation
has not diminished much despite the
Congress numbers swelling to 206 in
the LS. Some more cabinet ministers
will be taken on board next week and
it would seem that the balance may
only marginally favour LS MPs. Of
the 20 ministers sworn in on Friday,
12 are from the LS. Though govern-
ment sources said the portfolios may
not be announced until the Congress’s
power-sharing talks with the DMK
are settled, the line-up does not seem
difficult to piece together. With the
Congress and the NCP agreeing to
maintain the status quo, Praful Patel
may continue in the civil aviation
ministry, though his exclusion from
the team that took the oath on Friday
raises doubts about a cabinet upgrade.
Also, an additional MoS may not go
the NCP’s way. Mamata Banerjee held
the railways portfolio during the Atal
regime. Her stay at Rail Bhavan was
somewhat controversial, but Congress
managers are relieved her interest in
the ministry has given them an ex-
cuse to deflect the DMK’s demand for
the department.
Anand Sharma, whose elevation
was a source of envy, may be given
charge of I&B—confirming him in
the responsibility that he has han-
dled since P R Dasmunshi’s indispo-
sition—in addition to his charge as
minister of state in the MEA. It’s ex-
pected that Jaipal Reddy will retain
urban development.
Veerappa Moily, who was given
the job of heading the oversight com-
mittee on implementing the OBC quo-
tas in centrally-run educational in-
stitutions, is mentioned among the
possibilities for the HRD ministry.
Meira Kumar is only one of the two
Congress MPs from Bihar and should
get back her old job as minister for
social justice just as Murli Deora is
tipped for the petroleum portfolio.
After being promoted to the cabi-
net rank, B K Handique could be seen
as a natural choice for N-E affairs. He
was MoS in chemicals and fertilisers
in the last government. Ambika Soni
and Ghulam Nabi Azad, are tipped to
return to tourism and parliamentary
affairs respectively. RS member Vyalar
Ravi has made it to the cabinet even
though the Congress has 16 LS MPs
from Kerala to choose from. He may
go back to the labour ministry. Ma-
harashtra leader S Shinde held the
power ministry and it remains to be
seen what assignment he gets. New-
comer C P Joshi, Rajasthan PCC chief
and a Rahul favourite, has been spo-
ken of for the rural development. TNN
New Delhi/Chennai: Senior DMK
leader T R Baalu on Friday tried to
play down the party’s stand-off with
the Congress over portfolios, saying
the Congress was still a friend.
The exchanges between the two
sides have been pretty sharp so far.
DMK sources said the party was ag-
grieved by the brusque tone adopt-
ed by Congress leaders during the
negotiations. At one point, a nego-
tiator, frustrated with the DMK’s in-
sistence on certain infrastructure
ministries, said the party should
not lose sight of its numbers.
Said a DMK source, “Our leader
would have been more amenable if
a Congress leader had got back to
him and reasoned out their posi-
tion.’’ The allusion, it would appear,
was to Sonia Gandhi and the DMK’s
hope that the Congress chief would
walk the extra mile to accommodate
its demands—something that has
not materialised, nor is expected to
as far as the infrastructure min-
istries are concerned. Congress
sources were unapologetic. They de-
nied they had tried to veto the in-
clusion of Baalu and Raja in the cab-
inet, saying a distorted perception
was being created by the DMK lead-
ers themselves to settle factional
scores. But they didn’t mince words
about the fact that Baalu’s per-
formance in the surface transport
ministry was less than satisfactory,
and that this justified the Congress’s
bid to wrest it back.
DMK sources in Chennai said
they were still holding out. “We have
not accepted any offer from the
Congress. We hope they will get
back to us with a more acceptable
offer, giving due regard and respect
to us.’’ Congress sources said the
DMK had been offered three cabi-
net portfolios. “They can choose
three out of the following four—
communications & IT, labour, chem-
icals & fertilisers and textiles,’’ they
said. In addition, four minister of
state posts had been offered. Clear-
ly, shipping, surface transport, pow-
er or railways are not being put on
the table. The trouble for the DMK
is if the party doesn’t get the ship-
ping ministry, its pet Sethu-samu-
daram plan may never see the light
of the day. TNN
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