NEW DELHI, December 2: Former Delhi Mayor Mahinder Singh Saathi and Leader of Opposition in the MCD Dr Narendra Nath will be among the six ministers to be sworn in along with Sheila Dikshit here tomorrow, Congress party sources said. Other ministers who will take the oath of office and secrecy include Geeta Colony legislator Dr A K Walia, who is tipped to be the health minister, Krishna Tirath, representing the disadvantaged sections, Parvez Hashmi, representing the minorities and Yoganand Shastri, the sources added.Earlier in the day, the Delhi Congress had sent a list of MLAs to be part of the Delhi Cabinet to party president Sonia Gandhi for her sanction. According to sources in the All India Congress Committee, these names were also to be considered for the posts of speaker, deputy speaker and deputy leader of the House.
There was also a proposal for appointing more than two parliamentary secretaries. The names suggested for the posts of speaker, deputy speaker and deputy leader included Prem Singh and Deep Chand Bandhu. However, the Congress seems to be going in for a younger image. The list announced late at night did not include the name of Tajdar Babar, who was expected to be part of the new cabinet. Instead, Parvez Hashmi, who won from Okhla, will be part of the Cabinet.
Protesting against this decision, Babar's supporters said: ``Sheila Dikshit is an outsider, Babar has worked for the party all her life. Hashmi was with the Janata Dal and joined the Congress only recently''.
For the post of parliamentary secretaries, the names suggested were Ajay Maken, Naseeb Singh and Ramesh Kumar, the MLA from Shaibabad Daulatpur and brother of Sajjan Kumar. With more than 16 MLAs behind him, Sajjan Kumar had a big say in the government formation.
The other MLAs whose names figured in the list included Haroon Yusuf, Prahlad Singh Sahani, Ramakant Goswami and Raj Kumar Chauhan.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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