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India's Congress allies bicker over Cabinet positons

Prabir Paul, a member of India's Congress party, places a garland on a picture of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in Calcutta yesterday, marking the 13th anniversary of his assassination by a suicide bomber. PHOTO: REUTERS

India's prime minister designate, Manmohan Singh, yesterday held crisis talks with powerful coalition partners after a row over Cabinet posts erupted a day before his inauguration.

The mild-mannered Singh joined Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi to mark the 13th anniversary of the murder of her husband Rajiv but the two quickly returned to talks with a clutch of regional partners as markets fell on reports of the bickering.

Party officials said Gandhi and Singh had planned to visit the town of Sriperumbudur in southern India where Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a suicide bomber in 1991, but were now unlikely to do so.

Singh, who was designated prime minister after Italian-born Gandhi said she did not want the job despite leading Congress to a win in last week's election, is due to be sworn in today.

Bombay's stock market fell as much as 2.6 percent in early trade after newspaper reports that regional strongman Laloo Prasad Yadav had walked out of Cabinet formation talks in a huff. He had wanted the powerful home or interior ministry.

Yadav's regional party holds a key 21 seats in parliament and has been a long-time partner of Congress, which won 145 seats in the 545-member parliament. Other allies, including left-wing groups that have promised support without formally joining the coalition, will give Congress a majority.

But Yadav said he would return to the talks with Congress yesterday and it appeared unlikely that his demand was more than brinkmanship.

Still, the Bombay stock market was skittish. Markets have also focused on who will be the new finance minister.

Singh, himself a former finance minister who drew up India's reform program in the early 1990s, had been favorite until Gandhi's withdrawal catapulted him to the top job.

Within Congress itself, there were many contenders for government posts.

"The Congress will naturally keep the major portfolios, as the leader of the coalition," said party general secretary Kamal Nath. "But we will keep the interests of our allies fully protected," he said.

Congress's success in the election was ascribed mainly to the charisma of Sonia Gandhi.

Yesterday Gandhi, dressed in a sober light-grey sari and a white blouse, prayed at the New Delhi memorial site to Rajiv Gandhi.

Her son Rahul, newly elected to parliament, Singh and hundreds of other party members were there too. Her daughter Priyanka was likely to be in Sriperumbudur, family friends said.
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