UPA cabinet reshuffle not taking place on Monday

The promised cabinet reshuffle by prime minister Manmohan Singh is not happening on Monday, or Tuesday for that matter. In fact, it might remain on the cards for a week.

Singh’s third meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday during the course of a week had lent an air of urgency to the image make-over exercise, and political leaders had given an impression that the week would begin with a fresh note.

“But apparently, a few issues have to yet to be sorted out, the re-jig is not taking place tomorrow at least,” said a senior party functionary. Singh was believed to be keen on inducting non-politicos such as Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Ashok Ganguly, a Rajya Sabha member and former chairman of Hindustan Lever, to freshen up the government’s image.

But the political leadership was resisting such moves given the anti-politician atmosphere created by the Anna Hazare-led civil society movement against corruption.

“No political party in power can accept that it does not have clean politicians and has to outsource ministerial talent. It simply does not help in the long run,” said a Congress general secretary.

In his seventh year as prime minister, Singh was also keen to establish his authority and wanted to convey an impression that he was very much in control of the political affairs, too.