A reshuffle of the Union Cabinet reshuffle will take place on Monday. Though Congress managers kept secret the names of the probables, the names of Mr Oscar Fernandes, Mr Birender Singh and Ms Meenakshi Natarajan are doing the rounds in party circles.
The reshuffle will take place on Monday evening, a Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson said.
The reshuffle-cum-expansion is expected to be utilised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to fill several vacancies in his Council of Ministers. It is unclear whether Mr Vilas Muttemwar, sitting Lok Sabha member from Nagpur, will find a place in the Cabinet. Mr Muttemwar, a CWC member, has won the Lok Sabha elections eight times since 1980. Ms Natarajan is considered close to party vice-president Rahul Gandhi. The name of tribal leader and former minister Manikrao Gavit is also being mentioned.
According to insiders, about 10 to 12 leaders could be included in the Cabinet.
Besides, party leaders from election-going Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh would be rewarded in the reshuffle, probably the last such exercise of the Manmohan Singh government in UPA-2.
There was also speculation that minister of state Charan Das Mahant, from poll-bound Chhattisgarh, where the Congress leadership was attacked by Maoists recently, will be elevated.
Dr C.P. Joshi and Mr Ajay Maken had handed in their resignations on Saturday night and these were accepted by President Pranab Mukherjee with immediate effect, Rashtrapati Bhavan said.
With the DMK and TMC withdrawing support to the UPA government, a number of slots vacated by them are yet to filled. Five ministers of the DMK had resigned on March 20 this year after which there has been no rejig of the Union Council of Ministers. Those who resigned were ministers of state for finance, commerce and industry, health and family welfare and social Justice. The only Cabinet minister the DMK had after the resignations of Dayanidhi Maran and A. Raja was M.K. Alagiri, who was in charge of chemicals and fertilisers. The Trinamul Congress had withdrawn support to the government last year.