Sonia and PM meet, reshuffle may be put off

The much awaited cabinet reshuffle may not happen until the third week of October. Following a lengthy meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday evening, sources said the two leaders may have decided to postpone the revamp.

The meeting came ahead of Thursday's UPA coordination committee meeting, at which policy matters on which coalition partners differ may come up. The meeting may endorse the recent announcements made by the government to fast-track reforms.

Sources said paucity of time to discuss possible ministerial candidates, and the Congress's current preoccupation with political developments including the exit of the Trinamool Congress from the UPA and the ongoing crisis in Maharashtra, could be reasons for postponing the reshuffle.

Sonia and the PM are believed to have held preliminary discussions on recasting the cabinet, however. The reshuffle has been necessitated by the resignations of six ministers belonging to the Trinamool, and the vacancies created by the movement of Pranab Mukherjee to Rashtrapati Bhawan, the exit of Virbhadra Singh, and the death of Vilasrao Deshmukh. The reshuffle, as and when it happens, might well be the last before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

ALSO READ

CBI chief says report on coal block 'clean and clear'

Pak High Commissioner to visit Sanaullah today

Janampatri to genomepatri, the leap forward in predicting future

Despite fast-track courts, rape conviction rate still low