Chief Minister is expanding

Free Thinker *

Physical expansion may not take place as his body frame is already genetically fixed. Finding imputed meanings to the headline – CM can expand;

First he has the Constitutional authority to give names to the Governor for appointment of new Ministers for his Council of Ministers thereby expanding his Ministry ;

Second he can expand his political reach in every nook and corner of the State keeping in touch with all the lawmakers who were otherwise ignored or sidelined accidentally in the last 3 years or so;

Third he can expand the buffer boundaries beyond bounds making the entire State neutral.

Everyone knows that a CM has the power and authority to get his Ministers appointed by the Governor. The Lok Bhavan occupant has to accept the advice of the CM pertaining to the induction of Ministers in his Cabinet. Article 164 of the Constitution provides that. CM advises the Governor on Minister appointments but this advice is not absolute and must align with the political mandate.

As per Article 164 (1A) the total number of Ministers including the Chief Minister in the Council of Ministers in a State shall not exceed fifteen per cent of the total number of members of the Legislative Assembly.

However the number of Ministers, including the Chief Ministers in a State shall not be less than twelve. This provision was inserted by the 91st Constitution Amendment Act, 2003. Manipur belongs to the second category.

Earlier there were no such restrictions; so for political stability the incumbent Chief Minister inducted as many Ministers as possible in the Government. Once upon a time there were 30 Ministers including the Chief Ministers in an Assembly of 60 Members. Adding to that the post of the Speaker was also from the Ruling side.

If the CM has 31 MLAs on his side in a 60 member House, - the majority is maintained – even then there was political instability. The political fluidity in the 80s and 90s was because of the unending power struggle among the elected representatives. In the last 2 decades of the 20th century we had 5 time CM, or 3 time CM, or 2 time CM etc.

There was a strong Neta in Singjamei when the present CM was teaching martial arts in Assam. He promised to replace the then CM due to some political differences. He pledged in front of Govinda ji that he shall not cut his hair till that gentleman is removed from the CM chair. Finally he could dethrone the man as a result of a series of lobbying and hobnobbing. He was a man of courage and a socialist at heart.

The Tenth Schedule or the Anti Defection law could not prevent political instability of Manipur in the 80s and 90s. There was a basic flaw in the law – that was the split clause (ie, 1/3 can split). By this split clause small parties or MLAs jump from one party to another. Suppose a party has 3 MLAs – even a single MLA can come out and join a new party to form a novel Government – as he himself constitutes one third.

Now that split clause has been done away with by amending the Tenth Schedule ; now in lieu of split close there is merger clause – this makes the floor crossing slightly difficult but not impossible.

The merger clause (Para 4) of the Tenth Schedule (Anti- Defection Law ) exempts legislators from disqualification if their political party merges with another, provided at least two-thirds of the legislature party members agree to the merger.

This provision was meant to allow lawful unification of parties without punishing the elected lawmakers. Decisions regarding mergers are to be made by the Speaker of the House which is again subject to judicial review. Critics often criticize this merger clause too saying that it allows mass defection undermining the intent of the Anti-Defection Law.

Another grey area of the present anti defection law is that the Speaker has to decide the defection or merger cases, and there is no time frame for that.

The key issue remains that-CM must expand his Cabinet as per the Constitutional provisions; he still can have 7 more Ministers. Submit the names of ‘loyal members’ to the Lok Bhavan ; and those ‘reliables’ and ‘pliable’ who cannot be accommodated may be given Chairmanship. It is better to move fast because time is limited. The considered period is only one year .

CM’s list is normally accepted by the Competent Authority. Let us not believe in rumors that everything is decided by Delhi, including portfolios. It is the Chief's prerogative to decide the composition of his Ministry.

As a matter of political courtesy, the list gets endorsement from the party top brass. No one prepares the list, CM prepares the list. There may be minor corrections in Delhi but not always. Let’s see what happens in the next few days. The Lok Bhawan is illuminated.

When CM expands, hills should be covered in all directions and most importantly our myriad ethnic composition must be taken into account in power sharing as well as matrimonial alliance too.