New Delhi: The stage is set for Sunday’s much-anticipated cabinet reshuffle with seven ministers – including SM Krishna and Ambika Soni – stepping down to make way for newer, and possibly, younger faces.
The new ministers with take oath in the morning.
A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique on Saturday evening said all the resignations have been accepted.
Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who the Prime Minister has invited to join the government, may accept the offer. But there is speculation he may take on a more prominent role in the Congress party.
Rahul met party president and his mother Sonia Gandhi on Saturday amid talk that he is pushing to bring younger faces into the ministry.
The Cabinet reshuffle was necessitated after the Trinamool Congress quit the UPA last month.
Among the ministers who may be dropped are Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma. Jaiswal as well as Sahai had came under attack from the opposition on the coal blocks allocation issue.
Among the names doing the rounds as probable new faces to be inducted in the Cabinet are of actor-turned politician Chiranjeevi from Andhra Pradesh and Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury, the brother of late Congress leader Abu Barkat Ghani Khan Choudhury, from Malda district of West Bengal. Another West Bengal Congress leader, Deepa Dasmunsi, MP from Raiganj, is also being touted among the probable from the state who could be inducted.
There are several names being speculated as possible successors of Krishna, including Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, senior party MP Karan Singh and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor.
Some ministers holding more than one portfolio, like Kapil Sibal, CP Joshi, Vayalar Ravi and Salman Khurshid, make be relieved of one ministry, while some ministers of state, like Sachin Pilot and Jyotiraditya Scindia, are likely to be elevated.
The death of Vilasrao Deshmukh, who was minister for Science and Technology, had led to a vacancy for a cabinet post for a leader from Maharashtra. (IANS)