Saurashtra Cong MPs eye berths in Union cabinet

The ongoing crisis in the UPA-II government presents a major opportunity for some Congress parliamentarians from Gujarat. The state unit has had a long pending request to include at least one MP from Saurashtra region in the Union cabinet.

Porbandar MP Vitthal Radadia is among the front runners for a cabinet berth. Surendranagar’s Soma Ganda Patel and Kunwarji Bavaliya are also awaiting the coveted call from Delhi. 

The incumbent ministers from Gujarat – Bardoli’s Tushar Chaudhary is union minister of state, road, transport and highways, while Anand MP Bharatsinh Solanki is MoS Railways.

Dinsha Patel, an MP from Nadiad is also MoS holding independent charge of mines. Besides, Gujarat’s campaign committee in-charge Shankersinh Vaghela has been recently appointed as chairman of Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC), equivalent to a cabinet rank.

Incidentally, all three MoS are from central and south Gujarat and with the assembly elections due in state now, Congress leaders are insisting that at least one berth be given to a leader from Saurashtra.

Even North Gujarat is not represented in Delhi, but that is not in the priority list for state Congress right now. Besides, Radadia belongs to the Leuva Patel community, the same as Keshubapa; and Bavaliya and Soma are Kolis. Congress’s goodwill is considered relatively weak in both these communities.

The quandary facing the high command is that Radadia has his roots in RSS as he came with Vaghela’s Rashtriya Janata Party in 1998 and Soma is also a BJP turncoat of 2007.

“The fight is tight in Saurashtra. BJP is traditionally strong here. On the other hand, it is the home turf of Keshubhai Patel whose newly-launched GPP is also working hard here. A minister in UPA for these last two years will not only give us an edge in assembly polls,” a top party leader said.

“But its domino effect will be felt in 2014 when Congress will be desperate to corner every seat it can. Besides, Modi is expected to be at his aggressive best in 2014, so sweeping Gujarat will be his absolute priority to gain bargaining power with NDA allies in his quest for PM post. Our demand has been pending for a long time as there was no minister from Saurashtra even in UPA-I,” he added.

The tricky part is whether to add one more minister from the state – taking the total tally to five, if one is to include the prime post for Vaghela, – or ask one of the incumbents to step down. Perhaps, it is not a coincidence that both other key posts in Gujarat Congress – Shaktisinh Gohil and Arjun Modhwadia hail from Bhavnagar and Porbandar respectively, falling in the Saurashtra region.