Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to meet President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday ahead of the Cabinet meeting when the controversial Ordinance on convicted lawmakers is expected to be withdrawn.

The Union Cabinet is meeting on Wednesday to take a call on withdrawal of the Ordinance, whose fate appears to have already been sealed after Rahul Gandhi's strong denunciation of the measure.

The Ordinance is currently before the President who is leaving on a foreign tour on October 2. Mukherjee, who is believed to have reservations on it, had met senior government ministers after a BJP delegation urged him not to give his assent, triggering speculation that he may return the Ordinance to the Government.

To avoid this embarrassment, the Prime Minister is expected to explain Government's plans to drop the measure, sources said.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi has forced the Congress to have a relook at the Ordinance after he called it a "complete nonsense" and said that it should be "torn up and thrown away."

Singh, who is returning from the US tonight, will also brief the President about his talks with President Barack Obama in Washington and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in New York as also his address to the UN General Assembly.