Both leaders have had several rounds of discussion on this subject but failed to arrive at a final decision due to pulls and pressures from the allies on the one hand and compulsions of coalition politics on the other.
Dr Singh and Sonia Gandhi at a meeting earlier in the day, decided that come what may, the changes cannot be delayed any further. Several postponements have made Prime Minister a laughing stock and the media has been having field day on daily basis.
The last re-shuffle was held in January last when Prime Minister has assured that another one would take place shortly but this did not take place since UPA-2 was rocked by one scam after the other.
The effort to re-furbish the image of the Government which suffered irreparable damage as two ministers were forced to resign on the issue of 2G Spectrum allocation would be salient the feature of tomorrows exercise
Keeping this in view, the source indicated that there would be a lot of inductions and new faces. Non performers would be dumped. However, the top four that is Finance, Home, Defence and External Affairs would not to be touched.
Mr Kapil Sibal who is holding due portfolios of Human Resources Development (HRD) and Telecom Ministry may be divested of one. He may be asked to continue with Telecom since a legal brain is needed to deal with court cases relating to 2G spectrum allocations scandal.
Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is Party General Secretary in-charge southern states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh with Telangana tangle hoting up every day, it has become a full- time job for Mr Azad. So, therefore, Ministry of health may be taken away from him.
There are a lot of vacancies in the UPA-2 like the Ministry of Textiles after the resignation of Kalanidhi Maran and the Railways. But Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee has made it clear that the Portfolio which she shed after becoming Chief Minister of West Bengal should remain with her Party. The most likely candidate would be Mr Dinesh Trivedi.
Another vacancy likely to arise would be Tribal Affairs as Dilip Singh Bhuria has taken the party BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh. Maharashtra stalwarts-Vilas Rao Deshmukh and Sushil Kumar Shinde might also face the the axe for their involvement in the Adarsh Housing Scandal.
