PM to expand ministry today
Tribune News Service and PTI

NEW DELHI, Dec 4 — The Union Cabinet will be expanded tomorrow with indications that it will be a "limited’’ exercise to induct at least three new ministers.

Sources said Mr Jaswant Singh, Mr Jagmohan and Mr Pramod Mahajan are among the probable entrants.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who met President K.R. Narayanan, is likely to fill the vacancies in External Affairs, Communications and Information and Broadcasting portfolios.

Mr Jaswant Singh, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, and Prime Minister’s special emissary on diplomatic missions, is likely to be the new External Affairs Minister.

While high profile BJP MP Pramod Mahajan is likely to get the Communications portfolio, former Jammu and Kashmir Governor and MP from New Delhi Jagmohan is tipped for Information and Broadcasting.

Vacancies in I and B and Communications arose after incumbent Sushma Swaraj was shifted as Chief Minister of Delhi on the eve of assembly elections in which the BJP lost power.

The External Affairs portfolio has been with the Prime Minister for the past eight months. This will be the first expansion of the Council of Ministers after the BJP-led government assumed office in March this year.

The swearing in of the new ministers is scheduled for 6 pm at a ceremony in Ashoka Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan, according to an official announcement.

Earlier moves for expansion of the Cabinet ran into rough weather and it was announced that a full-fledged expansion would take place after the winter session of Parliament concluding on December 23.