Hot T puts off Centre’s Cabinet reshuffle plans

July 6: The ongoing Telangana controversy appears to have taken its toll, with the Congress core committee which met here Wednesday evening deciding to put on hold the much-anticipated reshuffle of the Manmohan Singh government.

Sources said that the core committee — comprising the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, the Congress president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, senior ministers, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, Mr P. Chidambaram and Mr A.K. Antony, as well as Mrs Gandhi’s political secretary, Mr Ahmed Patel — resolved to delay the much-awaited Cabinet reshuffle owing to the unrest over the demand for a separate state.

The sources added that the core committee also decided to continue the process of consultation over Telangana with all stakeholders till Parliament meets for its Monsoon Session on August 1. The AICC general secretary, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is in charge of Andhra affairs, was a special invitee at the core committee meeting, and he briefed it on the situation in the state. He has been negotiating with Congress legislators from the state ever since the crisis flared up again.