Imphal, July 9: The CPI is driving a hard bargain with Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh over portfolios, now that the battle over ministerial berths is over. Four days after Ibobi Singh pruned his ministry, the clamour for plum portfolios is on in full swing.
Portfolios are likely to be reallocated after Ibobi Singh, currently in New Delhi, returns to the state after meeting party chief Sonia Gandhi and attending the AICC conclave tomorrow.
The CPI, a partner of the Secular Progressive Front (SPF), has got two cabinet berths. It has made it very clear that the party is not going to be content with any portfolio chosen by the chief minister without consulting it.
The party?s state executive decided to press for a meeting of the steering committee of the coalition to discuss redistribution of the portfolios.
?Now that the downsizing exercise is over, the time for discussion on the portfolios has come. The steering committee should be convened first before finalising the portfolios. We will not accept portfolios allocated to our ministers without consulting us first,? CPI control commission chairman Moirangthem Ibohal Singh said.
Before the downsizing, all five CPI legislators were ministers: Three of them of cabinet rank and two ministers of state. The chief minister has accepted the party?s demand for two cabinet berths. The CPI has also demanded one political appointment, but Ibobi Singh is yet to take any decision on it.
Ibobi Singh has retained food and civil supplies minister Pheiroijam Parijat Singh and irrigation and flood control minister Ningthoujam Mangi Singh. Ibohal Singh said the CPI would continue to press for the political appointment.
The CPI also made it very clear that the party no longer wanted the ministry of food and civil supplies. It wants Ibobi Singh to give a Congress minister the charge of food and civil supplies. Parijat Singh, too, had hinted earlier that he no longer wanted the portfolio.
The control commission chairman, however, denied reports that the party?s decision to drop art and culture minister Moirangthem Nara Singh has caused a schism within the party.
Parijat Singh and Mangi Singh were selected by the central leaders. The rank and file of the party has accepted the central leaders? decision, Ibohal Singh claimed.
In another development, deputy Speaker L. Lala Singh has tendered his resignation. When all ministers and the Speaker had quit on the advice of the chief minister on Sunday, Lala Singh had refused. He put in his papers last evening on Ibobi Singh?s advice.