The Congress today played safe and handed the Home portfolio to the least-talked-about and, perhaps, the most unlikely candidate in the entire list of Cabinet ministers sworn in yesterday, former Speaker Shivraj Patil.Since the race for ministerial berths began, Pranab Mukherjee, who won the LS election from Jangipur in West Bengal, had been pegged as the next Home Minister. Soon after he was sworn in last night, he even said he would put his mind to what he would do in his new ministry once he assumed office on Monday.But a weekend being a very long time in politics, tomorrow, instead of sitting in the Home Ministry, he would be sitting across the road, in the Defence Minister’s office.According to senior leaders involved in the decision-making, Mukherjee’s name was final for the Home Ministry till the swearing-in yesterday, but the rethink happened in the meetings held later on, one of which went on till 4 am today at 10 Janpath.There were several reasons why the Congress finally decided against Mukherjee. First was the Left. While the Left is an ally of the Congress at the Centre, the two parties are rivals in Kerala and West Bengal. With Mukherjee himself hailing from Bengal, he may have invited unnecessary attention while discharging duties as Home Minister regarding the two states. And the Congress can’t afford to antagonise the Left.Secondly, it is said several senior Congress leaders were eyeing the Home Minister’s post and were disgruntled that it was almost ‘‘pre-decided’’ to go to Mukherjee. Shivraj Patil, on the other hand, is a ‘‘neutral choice’’, acceptable to most senior leaders. There was also a feeling that Patil may not be ‘‘forceful enough’’ as Defence Minister to re-examine the decisions taken during the NDA government. There is also buzz that Patil’s appointment will send a strong signal to Maharashtra where factions and rivals have been targeting CM Sushilkumar Shinde.
