Title - State Congress seeks 3 berths at Centre, writes to Sonia Gandhi - The Times of India

KOLKATA: Even before six ministers from Trinamool Congress tendered their resignations to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, speculation was rife on the likely entrants from Bengal in the Union cabinet.

With Pranab Mukherjee becoming the President of India and Mukul Roy tendering his resignation, Bengal was left with ceased to have any

no representation in the Manmohan Singh cabinet. To make things worse, five ministers of state also tendered their resignations along with Roy, leaving Bengal without a single ministerial portfolio in the Centre.

It wasn't without reason, therefore, that state Congress general secretary and AICC member Om Prakesh Mishra on Friday wrote to Congress president Sonia Gandhi to nominate at least three Union ministers from Bengal, including one with cabinet rank.

Mishra argued in his letter, "The state had a total of eight ministers - two cabinet and 6 MoS (one from Congress; 7 from Trinamool Congress) in 2009. Non-filling of one slot by the TMC (after Dinesh Trivedi's railway portfolio was given to Mukul Roy, the minister of state for shipping's post, which Roy held, wasn't filled by a Trinamool nominee) and Pranab Mukherjee's elevation as President, the number reduced to six and all these six ministers are resigning today. West Bengal (along with Andhra Pradesh) is the third largest state in the country and deserves a proportionate political and ministerial representation."

After the July 19 Presidential polls, there were enough indications of a cabinet rejig. Several contenders from Bengal were also touted to be in the fray, including the state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya and the Malda (South) MP Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury. Murshidabad MP Adhir Chowdhury and Raigunj MP Deepa Dasmunshi's name also started doing the rounds later. President Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijeet, who is the Congress contender for Jangipur Lok Sabha seat vacated after his father became the President, had publicly put his weight behind Adhir to get a cabinet berth. Mishra, through his letter on Friday, has sought an increase in the number of berths from one to three.

However, Bhattacharya chose to stay away from such speculation. "A Congress leader has every right to express his personal opinion to the party chief. Ours is a very democratic party. But at the end of the day, such decisions are the prerogative of the Congress president and the Prime Minister. The Pradesh Congress can't write such letter and it would be wrong to construe that this letter is endorsed by the state Congress. It is a personal opinion expressed," Bhattacharya said.