PM likely to expand team before Diwali

NEW DELHI: The long-awaited expansion-cum-reshuffle of the Union council of ministers is likely to be a pre-Diwali affair amid indications that senior leader Pranab Mukherjee has emerged a front-runner for the external affairs minister’s slot.

Mr Mukherjee's name has suddenly gained ground in political circles despite the defence minister reportedly not very keen about external affairs as he is also the Leader of the House in Lok Sabha. It would be difficult for Mr Mukherjee to travel abroad during Parliament days, political observers said.

Mr Mukherjee is also wearing many hats. Besides being the chief of the West Bengal unit of Congress party, he is also a member of the all powerful Congress core group, heads or is part of several important Cabinet committees and GOMs.

Other names which were earlier also talked about for the key position were Union ministers Kamal Nath and Kapil Sibal, Maharashtra governor SM Krishna and senior Congress leader Karan Singh.

While PM Manmohan Singh has kept everyone guessing about his choice for the post by saying that “you won’t have to wait for too long”, government sources said the exercise could be before Diwali which falls on October 21.

The vacancy arose last October when Natwar Singh was forced to resign as external affairs minister after his name appeared in the Volcker report on Iraq’s oil-for-food scam. It is expected in political circles that finance minister P Chidambaram and home minister Shivraj Patil, the two ministers in the kitchen Cabinet, were unlikely to be disturbed.

It is also being talked about that the exercise could be merely an internal reshuffle of portfolio without inducting a new faces and therefore no need for a swearing in ceremony.