Sahay fears Coalgate backlash after Vijayadashmi

The ticking time-bomb of a Union Cabinet reshuffle — ready to explode anytime after President Pranab Mukherjee returns to Raisina Hills post-Vijayadashmi — may yet ruin the festive mood for Union Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahay.

His office exudes optimism. Sahay’s media coordinator Ravichand Kapoor says the office has been receiving requests from different organisations seeking the Minister’s time to inaugurate puja pandals in Ranchi. “Within a couple of days, the list (of the places he will visit) will be finalised,” he added.

However, another close aide of Sahay was concerned, saying the Minister is quite unsure about his position in the Cabinet.

“Politics me utha-patak chalta hai lekin aise nahi. Kisi ko bura lagega,” he confided.

The report of a proposed Cabinet rejig the next week is spreading like the virus after Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi met the President. Top Congress sources claimed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had summoned Sahay last month and advised him to be prepared.

Singh believed to be quite unhappy over Sahay’s subterfuge and repeated show of innocence towards ‘moral wrongdoing’ of recommending coal blocks to SKS Ispat & Power Ltd, where his younger brother Sudhir is a director, all the while keeping the PM in the dark.

A couple of other Ministers are also likely to be asked to step down.

Sahay has been a desperate man, having made three unsuccessful attempts to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her political advisor Ahmed Patel in the past month, to plead innocence in a bid to save his chair.

On the other hand, a top Central Congress leader hinted that this Cabinet reshuffle could not be a very straight affair, since the party really can’t risk sulking drops-out and may anyway accommodate them.

“Such things are under deliberation. Sahay might be in the dropouts list. Cabinet reshuffle and organisational overhaul will be simultaneous, keeping in mind general election of 2014,” the leader said.

Sonia Gandhi is likely to reshuffle the Central organisation of the Congress by the end of this month or the next month. Rahul, during his two-day Jharkhand tour last month, had indicated a probable change of guard of the State unit.

Sahay is expected to lobby for the post of State party president to compensate for the loss of his precious Ministerial post.

Sahay’s impending departure from Cabinet is eagerly awaited by his rival faction, headed by State party president Pradeep Kumar Balmuchu, who does not stop smiling when asked about his proposed induction in the Cabinet.

While a shaky and preoccupied Sahay would be busy inaugurating puja pandals in Ranchi, Balmuchu will be in Delhi to confirm his Cabinet prospects. He is slated to visit Delhi on Friday.

Nonetheless, visiting all those puja pandals, Sahay would surely seek the blessings of the goddess against the feared guillotine.

But what he really needs are political blessings.