Harkishen Singh Surjeet and Somnath Chatterjee talking to mediapersons outside the 7 Race Course Raod after a pre-budget meeting with the Prime Minister I K Gujral in New Delhi on Tuesday. NEW DELHI, April 30: Politicians are a star struck lot. The swearing-in ceremony of Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) members, including P Chidambaram, scheduled for this evening was put off to Thursday 6 p.m. The unofficial explanation dished out today was that ``ashtmi,'' which falls today, is not considered a suitable day in the South for initiating new ventures. The timing of the swearing-in ceremony was not left open-ended. It had been fixed by the Government and Rashtrapati Bhawan had put out an official communication on Tuesday night that new ministers in the Gujral Government would take an oath on Wednesday at 7.30 p.m. The rethink came this morning. However, politicos were not prepared to buy the ``official'' explanation and see the move as an alibi to hide the tensions within the United Front (UF). Apparently, the TMC has demanded that more than four of its ministers be inducted in the UF Government and that they should include Jayanti Natarajan. But the problem is that like Moopanar, Natarajan is technically still a suspended member of the Congress. She would have to resign her Rajya Sabha seat to be re-elected to the Upper House. This would necessitate the support of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). The TMC's relations with the DMK have come under strain with its members charging the DMK with sabotaging Moopanar's chances of becoming prime minister. Counter pressures have also developed within the UF with reports that UF spokesman Jaipal Reddy is tipped to be the next Information and Broadcasting Minister. As it is, the Laloo affair has cast a shadow over the Janata Dal, and raised questions about its future. The Janata Dal (JD) chief is demanding that someone of his choice like Prem Gupta be taken into the Cabinet. Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav is also learnt to have insisted that if the JD sends one more member to the ministry, why not one more from the SP like Amar Singh? The State chieftains had decided the representatives from their respective parties in the UF government when Deve Gowda took over as PM last June. I K Gujral repeated the Gowda team last week, barring Devendra Prasad Yadav, who was dropped at the insistence of Laloo. The JD chief, who threw tantrums at the night-long meeting of the steering committee had reportedly threatened that he would throw D P Yadav and others out of the party, if his advice was not heeded. Reddy is a hard-core Gujral loyalist, a skilled parliamentarian whose media management has earned him kudos from UF leaders but he is neither a member of the Lok Sabha nor the Upper House. The Prime Minister appears to have worked out a strategy to get him elected to the Upper House. Sources close to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) say that Chandrababu Naidu, who was the real king-maker in installing Gujral on the Delhi `gaddi', may now facilitate Reddy's entry into the Upper House. And that one of the TDP MPs may resign to make way for Reddy to be elected and that the TDP MP may be suitably rewarded in other ways.
