Given the delicate international diplomacy New Delhi is engaged in over Iran and the US nuclear deal, the Prime Minister is most likely to keep the External Affairs portfolio in the much-awaited Cabinet reshuffle due tomorrow at noon. The only change in the MEA could be the entry of Congress spokesman Anand Sharma as a Minister of State.Who comes in and who gets what will be clear only tomorrow—in the past, the list has been rewritten right down to the wire—but the exercise is designed to fill up key vacancies in Power, Coal, Sports and Youth Affairs, include new faces from poll-bound states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu and give representation to states such as Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.While the key economic Ministries, Finance and Commerce are likely to remain untouched, the Power portfolio—vacant after the death of P M Sayeed—could go to Andhra Pradesh Governor Sushil Kumar Shinde. Rajya Sabha MP and veteran Mumbai Congressman Murli Deora is likely to get Petroleum from incumbent Mani Shankar Aiyar. Shibu Soren is likely to return as Coal Minister, a job he had to leave after the chargesheet.Tourism Minister Renuka Chaudhary may lose her portfolio to Congress general secretary Ambika Soni who could also get Culture, currently with S Jaipal Reddy. Chaudhary is likely to be moved to Women and Child Development.The reshuffle list was finalised in two meetings between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her political secretary Ahmed Patel. After the second meeting, Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi went to his office to work out the logistics. Rashtrapati Bhawan was told about the intended reshuffle by the Cabinet Secretariat and the list of Ministers was given tonight.Probable list of the new faces:• Saifuddin Soz: Cabinet Minister, Water Resources• A R Antulay: Cabinet Minister, newly created Minority Affairs• Vayalar Ravi: MoS, Independent Charge, NRI affairs• G K Vasan (TNCC chief): MoS, Statistics and Programme Implementation• Ajay Maken: MoS, Urban Development• M M Pallanraju (Andhra): MoS, Defence• Purandeshwari Devi (NTR’s daughter): MoS, HRD
