The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the Congress President, Ms Sonia Gandhi, today held consultations giving further grist to the speculation mill over a possible reshuffle of the Union Cabinet.

This is the fourth meeting of the two leaders in recent days amid indications that the reshuffle would take place any time this week.

There has been no official word on when exactly the Prime Minister would carry out the exercise.

The talk in party circles is that if the exercise was ‘more fundamental’, then there would be several changes in the Cabinet at the middle level.

About 10 to 12 ministers including new entrants from Trinamool Congress and Congress are likely to be involved in the reshuffle.

Sources said that the Trinamool Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha, Mr Sudip Bandhyopadhyay, may get a berth and could be inducted as Minister of State, possibly in the Finance Ministry in-charge of Revenue.

There is also speculation that the incumbent Minister of State Finance in-charge of Revenue, Mr S.S. Palanimanickam, may be upgraded to Cabinet rank in the wake of resignations by his DMK colleagues Mr A. Raja and Mr Dayanidhi Maran from the Cabinet.

The talk in Trinamool Congress is that Ms Mamata Banerjee could entrust senior leader Mr Dinesh Trivedi with the Railways portfolio she vacated after becoming the West Bengal Chief Minister.

DMK may opt for the upgrade in view of the fact that it is said to be not in a mood to name new entrants into the Government at this juncture when two of its ministers had to resign under a cloud and the party chief Mr Karunanidhi’s daughter Ms Kanimozhi is in jail.

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