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Advani to preside over Cabinet meet

Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani will Thursday preside over a Union Cabinet meeting, which will mainly discuss the monsoon session of Parliament, an official government spokesman confirmed on Wednesday.

Advani will preside over the meeting since Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is recuperating in Bombay's Breach Candy hospital, after a right knee surgery.

Vajpayee, before leaving for Bombay, had authorised his seniormost cabinet colleague Advani to preside over all Cabinet and Cabinet committee meetings and take appropriate decisions.

This brings the curtain down on the controversy that the prime minister did not wish to even temporarily hand over the reins of power to Advani in his absence.

Vajpayee, during surgery on his left knee last year in Bombay, had not authorised Advani or anyone in his Cabinet to preside over Cabinet meetings, giving rise to speculation that there was a rift between them.

Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan had last year insisted that the prime minister would be in "full control of government affairs, including the nuclear button'' even as he recuperated from the surgery.

While the agenda of the meeting is to ostensibly discuss Parliament's monsoon session, various problems being faced by the ruling National Democratic Alliance would be discussed.

"Whoever presides over the Cabinet meeting discussing the monsoon session of Parliament is bound to take into account the (political) challenges being faced by us (NDA)," said senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jagdish Prasad Mathur.

Since ensuring that the NDA had more than adequate strength in the Lok Sabha during the parliamentary session, Advani has a ponderous job at hand.

The Trinamul Congress of Mamata Banerjee has already commenced negotiations with various NDA leaders, including George Fernandes of the Samata Party, for her party's rejoining the ruling coalition at the Centre. This is one area where Advani's political sagacity will be tested to the hilt.

Some of Advani's supporters in the BJP and NDA have been opposing the Trinamul's re-entry as Mamata is impulsive and undependable in times of crisis, like when she took her party away before the assembly elections and concluded an electoral pact with the Congress.

The other notable challenge to the NDA emanates from the Congress and other Opposition parties on the Tehelka issue, although Sonia Gandhi's party is at present isolated from allies like the Communist Party of India-Marxists, AIADMK and even the Trinamul.

Advani will not only have to guide the NDA's strategy in this context but also ensure that the ruling coalition staves off the opposition attack.

The stock market scam is yet another issue agitating the opposition parties, which the NDA will have to fend off, although the Joint Parliamentary Committee probing it has already begun functioning.

Pakistan military ruler General Pervez Musharraf's Indian visit on Vajpayee's invitation, to thrash out the Kashmir issue, is also likely to be discussed at the Cabinet meeting presided over by Advani, sources indicated.

" Since Musharraf's visit is on top of government business (it is likely to take place before Parliament's monsoon session), the government may share information pertaining to it in Parliament," an official pointed out.

However, officials of the Prime Minister's Office were non-committal about it.

But the fact that Advani will be presiding over the Cabinet meeting seems to be appealing more to his supporters in the BJP than the business on its agenda.

"It's augurs well. After all, there is no doubt in our mind that Advani is the country's next prime minister. The sooner he starts presiding over Cabinet meetings, the better it is," said a veteran BJP worker at the party's Ashoka Road headquarters.

COMPLETE COVERAGE
The PM's Surgery
The Indo-Pak Summit 2001
The Capital Markets Crisis
The Great Defence Scandal

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