Ministry to be expanded on Thursday

Jaipal Reddy may also join ministry

The expansion of the nine-day-old Inder Kumar Gujral ministry has been postponed to Thursday.

Earlier, it had been announced that the ministry would be expanded on Wednesday evening with the induction of five more ministers including four from the Tamil Maanila Congress and one from the Janata Dal.

Highly placed sources had said earlier that United Front spokesperson S Jaipal Reddy would also join the government as a Cabinet minister, with charge of the information and broadcasting portfolio.

Official sources declined to give reasons for the postponement. The ministers will now be sworn in at 1800 hours on Thursday at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The TMC had pulled out of the United Front government after its leader G K Moopanar was denied the prime ministership. However, the party extended support to the government from outside.

The TMC's decision comes as a moralebooster for Prime Minister I K Gujral as former finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, the architect of the Union Budget for 1997-98, is likely to be assigned the same responsibility.

M Arunachalam and S R Balasubramaniam were the other two TMC ministers in the previous United Front government led by H D Deve Gowda.

Moopanar announced the TMC's decision at a crowded press conference on Tuesday night, ending the ten-day-old uncertainty over the party's future course of action.

The TMC supremo had been authorised by the party executive on April 27 to take an appropriate decision. Moopanar said the Congress and the Left parties, which were supporting the United Front government from outside, should join it in the interest of its stability.

Moopanar had extensive consultations with party officials since strong views were expressed at the executive meeting both for and against joining the government. An overwhelming majority of those who spoke at the executive meeting were strongly opposed to rejoining the government.

The TMC parliamentary party, on April 19, announced its decision to stay away from the government, in protest against the treatment meted out to Moopanar during the selection of the UF prime ministerial candidate.

After the party announced its decision, Gujral and many Front leaders requested Moopanar to reconsider the decision, saying no aspersion was cast on the TMC leader or his party by UF constituents, including the Left.

This was followed up by an appeal by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. The DMK and TMC have an electoral alliance in Tamil Nadu.

TMC cadres openly alleged that the DMK had not backed Moopanar's candidacy for the prime ministership. At one stage, it appeared that the Tamil Nadu alliance would collapse. TMC legislators began criticising the Karunanidhi government's policies and while the party executive meeting was in progress on Sunday, an effigy of Union Industry Minister Murasoli Maran was burnt outside the venue. DMK supporters retaliated the next day by burning Chidambaram's effigy.

Alluding to the TMC's decision to stay away from the government in protest against the treatment meted out to him by some UF constituents, Moopanar said the TMC's interests were considered more important than the interest of an individual.

The nation's interests, he said, were considered far more important than the party's interests and the decision to rejoin the government was taken in this context.

Moopanar said the Gujral government should last at least two years, and if possible, the rest of the term. "The only way," he said, "to ensure this is to get the supporting parties to join the government."