Cabinet reshuffle: Singh, Sonia set to meet again

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to shuffle his pack as early as Monday to fill vacancies, raise representation of electionbound states and send across a message of clean governance.

Singh met Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday, giving momentum to the talk of an imminent cabinet reshuffle. According to highly people close to the matter, both the leaders will have a final round of discussions on the planned reshuffle on Sunday. Gandhi is expected to leave on a private trip late on Monday evening. They said that this would give Prime Minister a window to effect the much-awaited rejig before Gandhi’s departure.

With the Congress-led UPA being dogged by successive scandals and corruption scams the Prime Minister is likely to concentrate on stabilising his council of ministers. There is an obvious lack of options to shuffle big-ticket portfolios such as home, finance, external affairs, defence or telecom. Sources said that the leadership might refrain from touching these portfolios.

However, there is an urgent need to find replacements for textiles and corporate affairs with Dayanidhi Maran’s resignation and Murli Deora giving health reasons to opt out of the cabinet. This has given a sense of urgency to the reshuffle.

The Congress leadership deputed senior party leader Pranab Mukherjee to Chennai to meet DMK chief Karunanidhi to discuss the political situation following Maran’s resignation. In Chennai, Mukherjee reiterated that DMK was an important UPA ally and the alliance was intact. "There is a lot of speculation whether the alliance between Congress and DMK is continuing or not. My respectful submission is this alliance is there, the alliance will continue and it will be strengthened," Mukherjee said.

Sources indicated the DMK is likely to get at least one Cabinet berth. The Congress, which is in a better bargaining position with the recent arrests of DMK leaders A Raja and Kanimozhi, is unwilling to give any say in portfolio to the regional ally.

Though former road transport minister T R Baalu was eyeing a Cabinet berth, the PM opposed his inclusion. This could turn into an advantage for T S Elangovan.