Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi meet President Pranab Mukherjee on cabinet reshuffle

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi met President Pranab Mukherjee separately amid indications of a rejig in the Union Cabinet by this week-end. The reshuffle may take place as early as Friday, a Congress leader said. "Otherwise, it will have to wait till the President returns from West Bengal," said the leader.

The President will be away for Puja celebrations. The reshuffle is aimed at filling vacancies caused by resignation of DMK's A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran, quitting of Virbhadhra Singh and Trinamool ministers and death of Vilasrao Deshmukh. HRD minister Kapil Sibal handles additional charge of telecom, and commerce minister Anand Sharma looks after textiles. The charge of the railways was given to surface transport minister PC Joshi after Mukul Roy's resignation. After SK Shinde's elevation as home minister, corporate affairs minister Veerappa Moily has been handling the power ministry too. All these ministers will be divested of one of the two portfolios.