Sonia meets PM amid talk of Cabinet reshuffle

New Delhi, Jul 11 (PTI) Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi Monday held
consultations giving further grist to the speculation mill
over a possible reshuffle of the Union Cabinet.
This is the fourth meeting of the two leaders in
recent days 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.
The talk in party circles is that 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 in
the reshuffle.
Sources said that Trinamool Congress Chief Whip in
the Lok Sabha (lower house of Indian parliament) Sudip
Bandhyopadhyay may get a berth and could be inducted as
Minister of State, possibly in the Finance Ministry in charge
of Revenue.
There is also speculation that incumbent Minister of
State Finance in-charge of Revenue S S Palanimanickam may be
upgraded to Cabinet rank in the wake of resignations by his
Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (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 after becoming West Bengal Chief
Minister.
DMK may opt for the upgrade in view of the fact that
it is said to be not in a mood to name new entrants into the
government at this juncture when two of its ministers had to
resign under a cloud and party chief Karunanidhi's daughter
Kanimozhi is in jail.