V Narayanasamy holds talks with Rahul Gandhi on his cabinet

PUDUCHERRY: Senior Congress leader V. Narayanasamy, who is set to become Chief Minister of Puducherry,  called on Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday to discuss the composition of ministry in the Union Territory. He was accompanied by PCC president A. Namassivayam and former Chief Minister V. Vaithilingam.

The Congress delegation will call on Sonia Gandhi only on Wednesday as she is on a two-day visit to her constituency, Rae Bareli. Narayanasamy said a final decision on the  composition of the ministry will be taken after meeting Sonia Gandhi.

At the same time there is hectic lobbying for ministers' post within Congress with aspirants knocking at the doors of the State and central leadership. Six  former ministers have already emerged victorious in the Assembly polls and accommodating all of them in the ministry is impossible as the number of ministers cannot exceeded five.

The time-tested formula which the Congress would stick to for selecting ministers is by giving representation to caste and to Yanam and Karaikal. Namassivayam and Vaithilingam who were frontrunners for the Chief Minister's  post will be included in the ministry.

Congress MLAs whose names are doing the rounds for ministerial berths include former  ministers M.Candassamy as a representative of Scheduled Caste,
R. Kamalakannan and Malladi Krishna Rao as representatives of Karaikal and Yanam regions.

Sources said the name of  A. John Kumar is also doing the rounds as one of the "new faces" and also a representative of minority community. He won the election with a comfortable margin of 12, 141 votes. Suspense continues over DMK joining the ministry.   The Lt. Governor will now officially invite Narayanasamy to form the government.