Source : Times of India

 
NEW DELHI: Oct. 24: Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to move further down Rajpath from his current office to the external affairs ministry as part of a minor ministerial reshuffle scheduled for Tuesday evening.

Consultations were on to finalise Mukherjee’s replacement as Defence Minister.

Veerappa Moily, S M Krishna, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh and power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde are on the shortlist.

The labour ministry is also likely to get a minister with the choice narrowing down to INTUC chief Sanjeeva Reddy and minister for overseas Indian affairs Vayalar Ravi.

There is also strong possibility of a new minister of state and some minor tinkering at the margins. One RJD MP may be inducted to fill the vacuum created by the resignation of Jaiprakash Yadav as minister of state for water resources.

At one point of time, serious thought was given to bringing in finance minister P Chidambaram or home minister Shivraj Patil as Mukherjee’s replacement but the idea seems to have been shelved.

A suggestion that the portfolio be left with the Prime Minister for a while was also shot down.

Consultations between Congress leadership and PM Manmohan Singh took place on Monday afternoon and Mukherjee was seen to fit the bill in terms of his long experience in government, including having been foreign minister, as well as on grounds of seniority.

MEA has been without a Cabinet rank minister since November 5 last year and the PM has been of the view that the ministry needed a full-time minder.

Yet, no decision was taken despite the PM having spoken of a new foreign minister on no less than three separate occasions.

The Congress leadership discussed the merits of replacing Mukherjee with either Chidambaram or Patil but sources said that with regard to both ministers, the Prime Minister had some reservations as he did not feel replacements for them in the home and finance ministries were easily available.

Chidambaram is seen as having handled the key political part of his assignment — of negotiating with and sometimes resisting pressure from Congress allies and supporting parties — quite well so far.

The view in the party is that in a coalition set-up, negotiating with demanding allies is a vital part of the finance minister's job, and Chidambaram seems to command the right degree of authority to handle it.