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Sonia Gandhi told inquisitive journos at last week's swearing in ceremony that Rahul's refusal to become a minister was responsible for Uttar Pradesh going unrepresented at the high-powered cabinet level in the scond coming of Manmohan Singh's government. (There are only two mid-level ministers and three junior ones from UP although it proved to be one of the big game-changer states by giving the Congress 21 seats.) She was joking, of course. But perhaps there was a grain of truth in her off-the-cuff remark. Recent history shows us that process of government formation is increasingly running into roadblocks set up by powerful regional satraps who want to be the sole interlocutors with the Centre on behalf of their states.

The lynchpin of the Congress party's stunning two-in-a-row victory from Andhra Pradesh, Y Rajasekhara Reddy, is one such control freak. He allowed only one of the 33 Mps elected from his state, Jaipal Reddy, to make it to the cabinet. There were two reasons for YSR's magnanimity towards Jaipal: he had no credible excuse to block someone who was a cabinet minister in the last government and he is hard-nosed enough to understand that Jaipal poses no political threat. YSR told Sonia that he wanted resources for his state, rather than cabinet berths. His argument resonatedwell with Sonia who was hard pressed to accomodate the long line of aspirants queuing up outside her door.

Mamata Banerjee is another who rode roughshod over the hopes of her Mps. She could have grabbed three cabinet posts for her party but she opted forjust one, for herself. This way she has ensured that she alone speaks for Bengal in the cabinet and hogs the limelight. Her decision set off rumbles of discontent in her party and some of her MPs were contemplating declining the junior minister's posts she offered them. But she's flying too high at the moment to be challenged.

The three cabinet ministers from the DMK are family or practically family as in the case of A Raja and they know who calls the shots. Dayanidhi Maran found out the hard way. When he dared to flex his muscles as IT and communications minister in Manmohan Singh's first tenure and tried to establish an independent relationship with the Congress, Karunanidhi had him removed summarily from the cabinet. Maran has had to do plenty of groveling to find his way back into the patriarch's good books and then into the cabinet of UPA 2.

In the case of UP, the decision to deny the state cabinet representation may not be driven by Rahul's obssession for personal glorification. But what Sonia said half in jest was probably half-true. In his quest to recapture UP for the Congress, Rahul cannot let mundane protocol issues like a cabinet minister come between him and his mission. The power flow chart moves very differently today.
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TAILPIECE
The metamorphosis of Sonia Gandhi from a diffident person finding her feet in the world of politics to a confident leader familiar with the reins of government was evident during the process of cabinet formation. Unlike 2004, this time, it was Sonia who had a decisive say in the matching portfolios to ministers. She called all the senior leaders one by one to her residence to consult them on their preferences and skills before finalising the list with Manmohan Singh. Pranab Mukherjee was offered the first bite. She asked him which of the big four portfolios he wanted and he chose finance. The PM's choice, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, never stood a chance after that.