After arm-twisting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to sack two of his handpicked Ministers, the Congress on Sunday claimed that decision to fire Pawan Kumar Bansal and Ashwani Kumar was the joint decision of the Prime Minister and party president Sonia Gandhi.
"It has appeared in a section of the media that it was at the insistence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi that the two Ministers were dropped. This perception is not correct. The correct position is that it was the joint decision of the Congress president and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh," Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said.
However, the PMO remained completely silent on the entire controversy despite serious questions being raised about the erosion of Manmohan's authority to decide even his own team. The PMO's silence also spoke volume about the divide between the two power centres — a fact earlier admitted by Congress leader Digvijay Singh also. Significantly, the Congress Core Group meeting scheduled on Sunday could not be held as the PM had some preoccupation, sources said.
This cancellation of the Core Group meeting in the backdrop of growing rift between the PM and Sonia is significant. Singh was against sacking Ashwani and wanted to shift his Ministry. In fact PMO had reportedly even prepared a note distinguishing Ashwani's case from Bansal.
Sonia, who had on last Sunday was supporting the duo, realised that the political cost of defending the erring Ministers was increasingly becoming very high with each passing day in view of embarrassing media revelations about their roles. So she prevailed on a reluctant the Prime Minister in removing them from the Cabinet.
The development has given fresh ammunition to the BJP to target the "weak" Prime Minister and flag the issue of two power centres in the UPA. The party intensified
its demand for PM's resignation with it youth wing staging protest outside his residence. Veteran BJP leader lK Advani has also questioned the PM abdicating this role of deciding about his cabinet and leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley
hinted at the involvement of someone senior officials in PMO in the cover up of coal gate probe.
With senior Ministers Kapil Sibal and CP Joshi already been given additional charges of law and Rail portfolios, now the Congress is going to focus on much-awaited changes in the party apart from filling the vacancy created by exit of DMK Ministers through a minor Cabinet reshuffle.
According to sources, the organisational reshuffle is likely to see some general secretaries and State Incharges being divested of their charge while Rashid Alvi is expected to be promoted. The buzz in the party circles is that many youth Congress leaders and Rahul loyalist like Ashok Tanwar and Meenakshi Natarajan could get greater responsibilities.