Cabinet reshuffle: Sonia Gandhi meets Manmohan Singh amidst speculations

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday held consultations giving further grist to the speculation mill over a possible reshuffle of the Union Cabinet.

This is their fourth meeting amid indications that the reshuffle would take place any time this week.

There has been no official word on when exactly the Prime Minister would carry out the exercise.

If  the exercise was 'more fundamental', then there would be several changes in the Cabinet at the middle level.

About 10 to 12 ministers including new entrants from Trinamool Congress and Congress are likely to be involved.

Trinamool Congress Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha Sudip Bandhyopadhyay could be inducted as Minister of State, possibly in the Finance Ministry in charge of Revenue.

It is speculated that incumbent Minister of State Finance in-charge of Revenue SS Palanimanickam may be upgraded to Cabinet rank in the wake of resignations by his DMK colleagues A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran from the Cabinet.

The talk in Trinamool Congress is that Mamata Banerjee could entrust senior leader Dinesh Trivedi with the Railways portfolio she vacated.

DMK may opt for the upgrade as it is said to be 'not in a mood' to name new entrants into the government when two of its ministers had to resign under a cloud and party chief Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi is in jail.