The party leadership on Sunday started giving final touches to the list of MPs likely to be sworn in as ministers.
With Congress leaders indicating that the DMK has agreed to join the Manmohan Singh government, in the second round of induction, probably on Tuesday.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, defence minister AK Antony and Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel met separately and later with the prime minister to work out the details.
Around 60 MPs are likely to be sworn in as ministers on Tuesday. Prominent among those expected to take the oath of office and secrecy are Abhishek Singhvi and Salman Khurshid (both from the Congress), Praful Patel (NCP), Farooq Abdullah (National Conference) and Dayanidhi Maran (DMK).
The youth brigade is likely to be represented by Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot, and Jitin Prasada of the Congress and Agatha Sangma, daughter of former speaker PA Sangma, of the NCP.
The Congress leadership is also keen on getting the regional and social balance right without compromising on the prime minister’s desire to put together a clean and efficient team that can deliver.
Unlike the first exercise, in which as many as seven ministers belonged to the Rajya Sabha, UPA political managers are expected to give larger representation to members of the Lok Sabha.
Among the states, Uttar Pradesh is likely to feature prominently. After nearly two decades in the wilderness, the Congress is showing signs of reclaiming its lost space in the political crucial state. So the party is keen to induct a fair number of elected members from UP into the government.
Apart from Khurshid and Prasada, others likely to represent the state in the council of ministers are former minister Beni Prasad Verma, former chief minister Jagdambika Pal, Sanjay Singh, and former minister of state for home Sriprakash Jaiswal.
Harish Rawat from Uttarakhand is expected to make the cut, as is Mukul Wasnik from Ramtek in Maharashtra.
The exercise will also see the inclusion of some ministers from UPA-I such as Kumari Selja, Rao Inderjit Singh, Pallam Raju, P Lakshmi, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Subodh Kant Sahay, and Jairam Ramesh.
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