With Singh back at South Block and stronger than ever, he will be hitting the ground running, especially on the Union budget.
In the week before the 2009 Lok Sabha election results, Manmohan Singh was determined to leave everything in working order at the prime minister’s office (PMO).
Thus, TKA Nair, principal secretary to the prime minister, held meetings with top officials and prepared notes on every issue the PMO engaged with.
With Singh back at South Block and stronger than ever, he will be hitting the ground running, especially on the Union budget to be presented in the last week of June.
“There will be a short session in the first week of June when the members of the 15th Lok Sabha will be sworn in; later that month, a full-fledged budget session will be called,” said a top official.
“The first priority of the prime minister is the budget. With fiscal stimuli already injected into the system, the prime minister is worried about the fiscal deficit, which is spiralling,” said a top aide of Singh. He added that the prime minister’s prescription to combat the slowdown is a heavy dose of funding for infrastructure projects, especially power, roads and transport.
“The Congress is therefore wary of handing back the roads and surface transport portfolio to the DMK, since TR Baalu’s performance was below par,” the aide said.
Singh has his wish list as far as ministers are concerned. “He would like Montek Singh Ahluwalia as finance minister. It is not certain, however, that that will happen,” said an aide.
Top appointments are being tweaked in the PMO. It seems the prime minister will make changes in his own team as well, and new faces will be seen in the PMO. Top diplomats like Ronen Sen and Shyam Saran may find a place in Singh’s team as India’s troubled neighbourhood requires close attention now.
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