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Patna,(BiharTimes): Rajya Sabha MP and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) general secretary Tariq Anwar is likely to be inducted in the Union ministry as minister of state MoS). The reshuffle-cum-expansion is expected to take place by the end of this month.
He would be the first Bihari in the UPA-II government though he is Rajya Sabha member from Maharashtra. There is only two Congress MPs from Bihar. Meira Kumar, who represents Sasaram in Lok Sabha is the Speaker while Asrar-ul-Haque is MP from Kishanganj.
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Anwar’s name has been forwarded to the prime minister Manmohan Singh by the NCP chief and Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar for appointment as minister. He also denied that he would be recommending the name of his daughter Supriya Sule.
The reshuffle is stated to take place after the return of President Pranab Mukherjee from his ancestral home at Mirati in West Bengal by the end of October. He is there to celebrate Durga Puja.
Tariq Anwar is most likely to replace NCP’s representative in the Union cabinet, Agatha Sangma, who is MoS in the ministry of rural development. She is the daughter of P A Sangma, who quit the party and fought Presidential election.
Sixty-one year old Anwar had represented Katihar in Lok Sabha four times as Congress party MP. He also held the posts of Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee and national president of All India Youth Congress and Seva Dal. He had also served as political secretary to the then AICC president Sitaram Kesri.
However, when Sharad Pawar revolted and formed the NCP in May 1999 he too joined the new party and along with Sangma was its founder member.
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