US embassy cable - 04MUMBAI2369

UNCLAS MUMBAI 002369 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, IN, Indian Domestic Politics 
SUBJECT: MAHARASHTRA MINISTERS TAKE OATH OF OFFICE; YET TO GET 
PORTFOLIOS 
 
REF: MUMBAI 2286 
 
 
1. (SBU) On November 9, 2004 Governor Mohammed Fazal 
administered the oath of office and confidentiality to 15 senior 
ministers chosen to be part of the Congress/Nationalist Congress 
Party (NCP) led Democratic Front government of Maharashtra.  The 
new ministers have yet to receive portfolios.  Chief Minister 
(CM) Vilasrao Deshmukh of the Congress Party and Deputy Chief 
Minister (DCM) R.R. Patil of the NCP told the media that 
portfolios would be allocated within the next two weeks. 
 
2. (SBU) Last week, NCP legislator Babasaheb Kupekar was elected 
speaker of the state parliament.  He ran unopposed.   The 
opposition coalition of Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party 
(BJP) Narayan Rane of the Shiv Sena, who had been chief minister 
of Maharashtra from 1997-1999, as leader of the opposition. 
Rane had been opposition leader in the outgoing parliament. 
 
3. (SBU) Further ministers are expected to be named in the 
coming weeks.  Competition for cabinet positions was 
particularly fierce in the wake of a January 2004 law that 
limits the number of cabinet positions to 15 percent of the 
number of deputies in a state parliament.  As a result, the new 
government is allowed a maximum of 43 ministerial portfolios as 
opposed to 67 in the outgoing state government.  The NCP is 
expected to get 24 portfolios and Congress 19 as a result of the 
two parties' coalition agreement.  The jobs of CM and DCM both 
count against this total, so Congress and NCP will be allocated 
18 and 23 portfolios respectively.  It is expected that the 
ministers sworn in on November 9 will receive the most powerful 
and influential ministries.  Most of the remaining cabinet jobs 
will go to ministers of state and junior ministers. 
 
4. (SBU) The swearing-in ceremony followed intense negotiations 
between Congress and NCP for the reduced number of minister 
portfolios.  Of the 15 ministers sworn in on November 9, six are 
members of Congress and nine are NCP members.  Congress is set 
to lose the larger number of minister posts.  Over the last week 
the new CM , Vilasrao Deshmukh made four trips to New Delhi to 
discuss the cabinet formation with his party's high command. 
Several portfolios will also have to be allocated to members of 
the smaller parties and to independents who are members of the 
coalition.  Each party also had to deal with dissatisfied 
members of their own ranks who were ministers in the previous 
government but will find themselves without a portfolio in the 
new, smaller government.  Congress and NCP are therefore 
expected to address the issue of additional ministers gradually 
and on a case-by-case basis in the coming weeks. 
 
5. (SBU) Of the Congress ministers taking oath, the most 
prominent were former Industries Minister Patangrao Kadam, 
former Forests and Environment Minister Surupsinh Naik and 
former labor minister Satish Chaturvedi.  Prominent among 9 NCP 
ministers sworn in are the two former deputy chief ministers 
Vijay Sinh Mohite Patil and Chhagan Bhujbal, former finance 
minister Jayant Patil and former irrigation minister Ajit Pawar, 
nephew of Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.   The new 
ministers will not necessarily inherit the portfolios they held 
in the outgoing government.  Naik's portfolio, for example, is 
expected to go to NCP in the new government. 
 
 
SIMMONS