Govt. outcasts DMK, puts Sibal in charge of Telecom Ministry

By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 16 November 2010, 00:59 IST
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Govt. outcasts DMK, puts Sibal in charge of Telecom Ministry
New Delhi: After the unceremonious exit of A. Raja as the Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Kapil Sibal has been given the charge of the same. Amid speculations as to know who would be the next Telecom Minister, some of the suggested names from the DMK party were, MP Kanimozhi, and Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran. Although the current arrangement of Sibal heading Telecom Ministry is a temporary one, it takes away the portfolio from DMK. MP Kanimozhi, daughter of DMK chief M. Karunanidhi who is a poet and a journalist by nature was one of the names that were suggested to the speaker for the throne. "I am not sure. This is a party decision. The leader (Karunanidhi) of the party has to take a decision," Kanimozhi said. The second name doing the rounds is that of Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran, Karunanidhi's grand nephew. The Tamil Nadu MP was first elected to the Rajya Sabha in July 2007 and has been a member of various parliament committees of ministries including health, rural development, women empowerment and human resource development. The other names that were suggested were Minister of Shipping T.R. Baalu, first time MP TKS Elangovan and lastly A.K.S Vijayan. However, these nominees may still have a chance as this is a temporary affair. By tradition, a reshuffle of the Council of Ministers is not undertaken during a Parliament session. Sibal, a renowned lawyer-turned-politician, was a week earlier given the additional charge of Ministries of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, which fell vacant after incumbent Prithviraj Chavan was made Chief Minister of Maharashtra. In another decision, V Narayansamy, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, was given additional charge of Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which also fell vacant after Chavan's departure.