The baton has been passed on to the next generation in the Deora family. Mr Murli Deora’s son Mr Milind Deora was inducted into the council of Ministers in the second reshuffle this year by UPA-II. This follows his father’s resignation as the Minister for Corporate Affairs (MCA) conveyed to Ms Sonia Gandhi earlier this month.

Deora Junior, 34, will be Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology.

South Mumbai, home to many millionaires, is the family stronghold. At one point, it is said that nothing moved in Mumbai without the senior Deora’s knowledge.

Perceived to be close to Mr Dhirubhai Ambani, he claimed to have ended the feud between the late Reliance chief and Ramnath Goenka in the 1970s over several games of bridge.

Deora is a staunch Congressman and it is currently being whispered in Delhi circles that he may go to Tamil Nadu as Governor. After his resignation, Deora expressed his wish to work for the Party at the national level.

Senior Deora moved base to Delhi in 2006 at the behest of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who made him Cabinet Minister. He served one full term as Petroleum Minister until he was shifted to MCA after allegations of irregularities in the Krishna-Godavari Basin deal. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India is working on a report to find out whether the Government exchequer suffered due to the deal.

Under him, MCA released merger and acquisition norms that do not fully exempt corporate India from regulations under Securities and Exchange Board of India. This was in contradiction to India Inc’s assumptions that business-friendly Deora would make things easier for them. For somebody as clued in as Deora, he may have been forewarned that he was going to be dropped, hence his resignation just days before the reshuffle.

Mr Veerappa Moily, former Law Minister has replaced Deora as Minister MCA.

divyat@thehindu.co.in

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