Click to play videoNew Delhi: Team Manmohan boasts of the maximum number of former chief ministers in an Union Ministry.
But there is a stark disparity in the responsibility they have been given to shoulder.
It maybe the Cabinet with the maximum number of former chief ministers but it seems Prime Minister Manmohan Singh doesn't trust most of them with important portfolios.
Five- time Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Virbhadra Singh has to be settled with the Steel Ministry while Farooq Abdullah, the strongman of Jammu and Kashmir politics, has been given New and Renewable Energy Ministry.
Even Maratha stalwart Vilasrao Deshmukh had to be content with Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Ministry.
"Portfolios don’t matter much for me. It is upto the Prime Minister to give us what he thinks we should be getting and utilise our services," was all Deskhmukh said.
In comparison to former Kerala chief minister AK Antory's Defence and former Karnataka chief minister Veerappa Moily's Law portfolios, the three first timers in the Cabinet are bound to be feeling a bit disappointed.
In the run up to the oath taking ceremony Farooq Abdullah had gone on a public sulk, flying off to South Africa to watch the IPL finals.
His son Omar Abdullah stated that his father was being humiliated by being made to wait by the Congress.
On the other hand Virbhadra Singh had made an open pitch asking for a better portfolio.
"My collective experience can come in handy for this government," Singh had said on Wednesday.
So were these chief ministers included in the Cabinet on merit or more due to other compulsion?
Abdullah's son Omar Abdullah is a good friend of Rahul Gandhi and his elevation as a Cabinet Minister sends the right message to the Kashmiri community.
Virbhadra Singh is supposed to be the representative of upper castes in Himachal while Deshmukh is supposed to be the counter to the other Maratha heavyweight Sharad Pawar.
On the basis of portfolios allotted to them perhaps they might be saying ye dil maange more (out heart demands more).
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)
displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of CNN-IBN does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them.