Ten in NDA, 11 in UPA ministry from Lalooland

PATNA: RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav''s drama appears to have paid off with Congress dropping its moral posture.
In the end, not only Laloo was sworn in as the fifth senior most minister of the Union Cabinet but he also succeeded in getting his trusted aide Raghubansh Prasad Singh inducted into the Cabinet and Prem Chandra Gupta — the Haryana-based industrialist-turned-Bihar RS MP regarded as Laloo''s Man Friday — as minister of state with independent charge.
Laloo also managed to get five of his men — Mohd Taslimuddin, M A A Fatimi, Kanti Singh, Jai Prakash Yadav and Akhilesh Singh — sworn in as junior Union ministers.
"The formula of having one minister for every 3.5 MPs appears to have been held in abeyance in Laloo''s case," said an RJD leader gleefully, pointing out that the present RJD strength is only 21.
The Congress move for not allowing chargesheeted MPs to get into the Union ministry seems to have been defeated.
While Laloo himself faces seven fodder scam cases, Jai Prakash Yadav has been chargesheeted in the B Ed scam by the Bihar vigilance department for his role as education minister of the state.
Taslimuddin''s induction into the new Union ministry is quite surprising. In the H D Deve Gowda ministry, Taslimuddin had been made minister of state for home. But he had to quit the ministry following a hue and cry over his alleged criminal background.
According to the affidavit he submitted to the Election Commission while filing his nomination papers from the Kishanganj Lok Sabha constituency, he is still facing nine criminal cases — eight in Araria district of Bihar and one in Kishanganj.
They include three cases of attempt to murder under Section 307 of the IPC.
In the NDA ministry, there were 10 ministers, including six cabinet ministers, from Bihar. In the Manmohan Singh ministry, there are 11 ministers from the state.