The much awaited cabinet reshuffle of team UPA-2 and probably the last before the 2014 general elections has reduced Meghalaya’s representation in the cabinet to zero. While it was clear that Agatha Sangma, the Tura MP and minister of state for rural development from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) would lose her job, no one expected Vincent Pala, the Shillong MP and minister of state for water resources and minority affairs to forfeit his ministerial post. Ever since Presidential candidate and founder member of the NCP, PA Sangma and his loyalists in Meghalaya resigned from the party to set up the National Peoples’ Party in the run-up to the presidential polls, speculations were rife that his daughter, Agatha Sangma would be dropped from the ministry. Her continuance in the cabinet had become tenuous. But Congress MP Vincent Pala’s ouster was unexpected. Although the first time MP has taken the recent reshuffle with equanimity and as a part of the UPA’s survival strategy, his supporters here would find it difficult to accept his diminished status in the central government.
There is such a thing as a performance indicator/report card for every minister in the UPA. This is closely monitored by the Congress High Command under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi since the party is in the driving seat. The next general elections are less than two years away and the UPA is not exactly in a happy position. Its allies the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) are both slippery customers. After the recent parting of ways with the Trinamul Congress the UPA was able to push through some of its pending economic reforms but these have not been taken too kindly by other allies as well although they have not made their stand very shrill. But the BSP and SP are biding time and would quickly leave the UPA if a more favourable political combine emerges. This is therefore a very trying time for the Congress-led UPA and the recent reshuffle is, apart from building regional alliances, also an attempt to boost the performance of the government under a new set of more youthful ministers. The inclusion of Shashi Tharoor in the HRD ministry is also a surprise move, albeit a strategic one. The North East has got two ministers in the union cabinet. Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have replaced Meghalaya and justifiably so considering both are Congress ruled states. It remains to be seen whether the present team delivers.