Dr Singh discusses Cabinet reshuffle with Sonia Gandhi

Jan 18, 2011 |

New Delhi

Tags:

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, on Tuesday met Congress President Sonia Gandhi amid speculation that a reshuffle of the Union Council of Ministers is on the cards later this week.

Gandhi met Dr. Singh at his 7 Race Course residence. She was accompanied by her political secretary Ahmed Patel.

The meeting comes a day after Dr. Singh met President Pratibha Devisingh Patil.

Though it was described as a routine meeting, there are indications that Dr. Singh may reshuffle his UPA Ministers later this week

Sonia Gandhi has already held two rounds of consultations with Dr. Singh over the issue.

The reshuffle could see some Cabinet ministers going to the Congress to oversee party work, while others may see their portfolios change.

While the telecom portfolio is expected to remain with Congress in view of DMK's handling of the charge pushing the government towards a virtual crisis, it is not clear that Kapil Sibal would be divested of any portfolio. He has charge of HRD, telecom and science and technology.

Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia is tipped to be the Minister of State for External Affairs. The post was left vacant after Shashi Tharoor resigned in the wake of the Indian Premier League (IPL) controversy.

Sharad Pawar, who currently holds three portfolios, could be divested of Food and Public Distribution.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/52844" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-01d001fb330357d71b95112e344edb94" value="form-01d001fb330357d71b95112e344edb94" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80652949" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>