New Delhi, Oct 27: Speculations were rife in the corridors of power on Saturday evening over the major portfolios to be alerted to the heavyweight ministers, after the exist of seven ministers including S M Krishna.
The latest speculations doing the rounds are about Veerappa Moily getting the Petroleum portfolio, with Jaipal Reddy being shifted to Science and Technology, Salman Khurshid getting the External Affairs portfolio, with Ashwini Kumar set to get Law, Anand Sharma may be shifted from Commerce to Textiles, and D Purandeshwari getting Commerce.
Shashi Tharoor may make a comeback as MoS in HRD to be shed by Kapil Sibal, the Communications Minister. M Pallam Raju, MoS Defence will be promoted as cabinet minister for HRD.
Jitendra Singh may get charge of Sports and Youth Affairs as MoS, while Pawan Kumar Bansal is tipped to get Railways portfolio.
Other speculations were about Rajiv Shukla getting additional charge of Planning apart from the Parliamentary Affairs that he currently holds, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewary may get I&B as MoS.
The swearing-in of new ministers, most of them young and handpicked by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, will take place at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 11:30 am on Sunday.
From Karnataka, MOS Railway K H Muniyappa will be given independent charge, while former Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson K Rehman Khan will be inducted as cabinet minister for Minority Affairs.
From Tamil nadu, young Congress MP Manick Tagore will made MoS, while actor Chiranjeevi from Andhra Pradesh will be given independent charge of Tourism, vacated by Subodh Kant Sahay, who resigned today after his brother's name cropped up in the Coalgate affair.
Balram Nayak and Sarve Satyanarayana from Telangance will be made Ministers of state, to arrest the fast dwindling Congress base in Telangana. K.Krupa Rani and Suryaprakash Reddy from AP will also be inducted as MoS.
From Maharashtra, Vilas Muttemwar will fill up Mukul Wasnik's shoes. Wasnik resigned today after meeting the Prime Minister.
Among the heavyweights, urban development minister Kamal Nath will be given additional charge of Parliamentary Affairs, as Pawan Kumar Bansal will take up the charge of Surface Transport.
C P Joshi will continue as Railway Minister, while MoS Ajay Maken, who had a good stint in Sports, will be given charge of Information & Broadcasting, vacated by Ambika Soni, who resigned today after meeting the Prime Minister.
Harish Rawat from Uttarakhand, and Srikanta Jena from Odisha, both MoS are slated to get promotion.
Among the MoS, Pradeep Majhi, Jyoti Mirdha from Rajasthan, and Rani Narah from Assam, are going to be inducted.
Tariq Anwar will be made MoS Agricuture under the tutelage of his party chief Sharad Pawar.
Since the UPA ally DMK did not ask for any berth, nobody from that party is going to be inducted in Sunday's reshuffle.
Among the Young Turks, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot and Milind Deora, all confidantes of Rahul Gandhi, are going to be promoted.
Mos Dinshaw Patel will get his promotion as Cabinet Minister, keeping in view the forthcoming Gujarat assembly polls.
Rahul's confidante Meenakshi Natarajan and Mausam Noor from West Bengal were offered ministerial berths, but they opted to work for the party .
From West Bengal, Abdul Hashim Khan Chaudhary and Pradeep Bhattacharya, will be made MoS, to fill up the gap caused by the withdrawal of Trinamool Congress from the UPA-2 government.
The jack in the pack, Rajiv Shukla is going to get an additional portfolio, as he emerges one of the troubleshooters for the government.
In all, there will be at least ten new faces in Sunday's reshuffle.
PTI adds: Ahead of the reshuffle, three Cabinet Ministers Ambika Soni (I&B), Mukul Wasnik (Social Justice) and Subodh Kant Sahai (Tourism) resigned today along with three Ministers of State Agatha Sangma (Rural Development), Mahadev Khandela (Tribal Affairs) and Vincent Pala (Water Resources), saying they would work for the party.
Interestingly, Agatha had to resign on her party NCP's directions after she campaigned for her father P A Sangma in the July Presidential elections in defiance of the party.
With this, the total number of ministers who have resigned has gone up to seven. External Affairs Minister S M Krishna had quit yesterday. All the resignations have since been accepted.
Rahul Gandhi, who was earlier speculated to be joining the government, is unlikely to do so. He may be in for a larger role in the party and could be made Working President.
59-year-old Anand Sharma, who is tipped to move from Commerce to take the place of Krishna, has done a stint in the MEA as MoS in UPA one. As Congress leader he had campaigned against apartheid in South Africa.
His place in Commerce is all set to go to 53-year-old Purandeswari, daughter of the late N T Rama Rao, after her eight-year tenure in as MoS in HRD Ministry.
Prominent among the newcomers expected to be inducted are actor-turned politician Chiranjeevi (Andhra Pradesh), A H Khan Chowdhry, brother of late A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhry, Pradeep Bhattacharya and Deepa Dasmunsi (West Bengal), Tariq Anwar (Maharashtra), Pradeep Balmuchu (Jharkhand) and Pradeep Majhi (Odisha).
Besides Purandeswari and Ajay Maken, who could also be promoted as a Cabinet minister, Ministers of State who could be upgraded are Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Milind Deora. Maken may get Information and Broadcasting portfolio.
In the rejig of portfolios, Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath is likely to be given additional charge of Parliamentary Affairs, now held by Pawan Kumar Bansal, who is expected to retain Water Resources.
Anwar, NCP MP, is expected to be made Minister of State for Agriculture to work under his party chief Sharad Pawar.
Along with the revamp in the Council of Ministers, there is a possibility of long-awaited restructuring in the AICC, to make it ready organisationally for the next Lok Sabha elections slated in 2014.
Submitting their resignations, Soni, Wasnik and Sahai said they will work for the party. Soni was Congress General Secretary for several years and was Political Secretary to Congress President Sonia Gandhi while Wasnik was handling the dual responsibility of Congress General Secretary as well as Union Minister.
Before meeting the Prime Minister, Sahai said yesterday that Congress President Sonia Gandhi called him to draft him for party work.
"It is an honour to work for the party. I am offering my resignation to Prime Minister. Party President (Sonia Gandhi) and others want me to work for the party so I will be working to strengthen the party as the party is supreme.We are in the government because of the party. Party is supreme and will always be supreme," he said.
Sahai's name had cropped up in a controversy following media expose that he had recommended for allocation of coal block a company in Jharkhand in which his brother was a Director.
