Cabinet reshuffle may include faces from WB: Sources

With Trinamool Congress withdrawing support from UPA government, the much-speculated upcoming reshuffle in the Union Cabinet this month is set to include Congress members from West Bengal.

Sources in the party have been maintaining that Congress will induct at least one minister from West Bengal during this reshuffle.

The withdrawal of support by Trinamool Congress has made the inductions from West Bengal Congress in the Cabinet imperative as otherwise the state will go unrepresented once TMC is out.

The 19-member Trinamool Congress has one cabinet minister, Mukul Roy and five ministers of state, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Sougata Roy, Sultan Ahmed, Sisir Adhikary and C M Jatua in the union council of ministers.

Congress has three members in Lok Sabha from West Bengal and one from Rajya Sabha.

Top sources in the party indicated that the upcoming reshuffle of the union cabinet is going to be "substantive".

Amid intense media speculation about his becoming a minister in this reshuffle, AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi on Tuesday suggested he was not interested in the job.

"There are some people whose contribution in the party is more important than any single ministry," Dwivedi told reporters.

Sources in AICC said there are some ministers who hold more than one portfolio and they could be relieved of their additional charge. Ministers like M Veerappa Moily and Vayalar Ravi hold dual charges like Corporate Affairs and Power and Overseas Affairs and Science and Technology respectively.

Moily got Power after the elevation of Sushilkumar Shinde to Home and Ravi got Science and Technology after Vilasrao Deshmukh's death. HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has been holding Telecommunication ever since A Raja of DMK was forced to quit in wake of 2G spectrum allocation scam in November, 2010.

There is talk of some ministers being sent to the party for preparations for 2014 Lok Sabha elections. There are two vacancies after representatives of DMK -- Raja and Dayanidhi Maran resigned.