The schedule was set by prime minister Manmohan Singh after hours of consultations with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her political secretary Ahmed Patel and other top party leaders on Tuesday.
The long-awaited reshuffle of the Union cabinet will be held at 5 pm on Wednesday.
The schedule was set by prime minister Manmohan Singh after hours of consultations with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her political secretary Ahmed Patel and other top party leaders on Tuesday.
Union ministers Virbhadra Singh and Kantilal Bhuria, who were summoned to 10 Janpath by Sonia in the evening, are expected to be dropped from the cabinet.
Singh has been under a cloud following an adverse ruling against him by the Himachal Pradesh high court in a corruption case, while Bhuria, a tribal, is tipped to go back to his home state of Madhya Pradesh as chief of the Congress state unit.
The reshuffle has been necessitated by compulsions of alliance politics and the need to redistribute portfolios because of vacancies.
A Raja, Shashi Tharoor and Prithviraj Chavan have had to resign for various reasons and they need to be replaced. While spectrum scam-tainted Raja’s place in the cabinet will certainly go to a DMK leader, the void left by Maharashtra chief minister Chavan, who held a clutch of portfolios, including minister of state in the prime minister’s office, would require more than one person to fill.
The portfolios held by Kapil Sibal and NCP chief Sharad Pawar are also due for redistribution. With NCP insisting that the portfolios should remain with it, there are indications that Tariq Anwar may find a place in the ministry.
Trinamool Congress, the biggest constituent of UPA-II after Congress, is likely to get another berth and the induction of Sudip Bandopadhyay appears a certainty.
The prime minister is also expected to take care of hierarchy issues and elevate some ministers of state to cabinet rank and redistribute portfolios for effective governance.
Ministers of state Salman Khurshid, Srikant Jena could be promoted and portfolios of Veerappa Moily, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Pawan Bansal changed.
Sonia Gandhi may announce recast of the Congress working committee after the reshuffle.
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