Berth pangs: Leaders book tickets for Delhi

Top Congress leaders and aspirants for the top cabinet post have been making a beeline for Delhi, ahead of the looming reshuffle in the state cabinet. Reports about the replacement of couple of ministers and filling of three vacant portfolios have also fortified the queue of people wanting to meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

Though the Rane-Sonia meeting on Friday added momentum to the buzz in the political corridors in the state, reports are now coming in that almost all Congress state ministers met Sonia after her return from London early this week.

A day before Rane met Sonia, two key leaders – Patangrao Kadam and former chief minister Ashok Chavan – met her on Thursday.

Their senior cabinet colleagues Harshavardhan Patil, Balasaheb Thorat and Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil too had called on the high command.

Sources close to Rane claimed that his meeting lasted only for two minutes and he wished her a fast recovery from her recent treatment. He also apprised chief minister Prithviraj Chavan about the meeting immediately afterwards on  the phone.

According to the Congress leaders in the state, the cabinet ministers are seeking the top leaderships for two reasons: to retain their portfolios and secondly, for elevation.
It is likely that a couple of ministers will be dropped for non-performance and three vacant posts filled in the reshuffle.

The buzz is that the Maharashtra chief minister was keen on returning to Delhi  to lobby persistently to be accommodated as Petroleum Minister during the Union Cabinet reshuffle expected in the next few days. In this case, aspirants for the chair of the chief minister in the state cabinet, apart from Rane include Thorat, Kadam and Harshavardhan Patil.

State unit chief Manikrao Thakre is also believed to be vying for the post.

With the air hotting up for the reshuffle in the Congress, top level deliberations have also started within Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for possible replacements among the portfolios the party holds.